


Don't Think About It

by ReymieNightmare



Series: The Thoughts We Share [1]
Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: BAMF Morty Smith, Fluff and Angst, Kidnapping, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-23 21:08:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20224393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReymieNightmare/pseuds/ReymieNightmare
Summary: Rick and Morty C-185 have steadily become closer throughout their many adventures together. So close it seems everyone has started to notice just how close Rick and Morty really are, everyone except Rick and Morty themselves. When Rick makes a wonderous breakthrough he and Morty go out to celebrate with a day out to Blips and Chits, only this celebration is cut short.When Morty is kidnapped, Rick has to face emotions he didn't think he still had, while his Morty takes matters into his own hands and puts everything Rick has taught him to good use. Along the way, they both make discoveries about themselves and each other, but the only ones able to tell if it's a good thing or not, is themselves.





	1. Morty

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! So, this is my first ever complete fic of this length and honestly I am super proud of myself for finally finishing it. I hope you all enjoy this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> R.N

Morty never really thought about him and his grandfather-slash-best friend as anything other than what they were. They were best friends, above all else, above the fact that Morty shared one-fourth of the guy’s genes, above anything else that was the standing rule. Best friends first. So Morty never really thought about the potential to be more, that was until Summer came in when Rick and Morty were sitting on the couch. It was a new position they had taken to sitting in, Morty never really thought much of it.

Morty was sitting basically in Rick’s lap. He was sideways, his back up against the arm of the chair. Rick had his legs spread so Morty was sitting on the couch in between them. Morty had his legs propped up against the second cushion, draped over one of Rick’s legs. The scientist had his arm propped up on its elbow and his hand in Morty’s hair, his other arm sat partially hanging off the back of the couch a bottle of alcohol in his hand. The new position was comfortable and as a result of one of their particularly gruesome adventures Rick had become especially clingy with his young companion.

Morty had gotten hurt, like on the verge of death hurt, Rick had to replace both of Morty’s legs as a result. Morty hadn’t blamed the scientist, this time Rick had the intention of a quick mission, that was the plan, a quick in-and-out. That wasn’t anywhere near what happened, and shockingly this time when things went to shit it wasn’t even from any direct action from Rick or Morty themselves. So Morty let Rick cling to him without so much as a word in question. He knew if he were to mention it, even in passing, that the elder would clam up tight and be more venomous to everyone than usual. Rick was a proud man in general, but he hated his own emotions.

So Morty wasn’t really paying attention to how they were sitting and the way he was dressed never even played in his mind. It was the dead middle of August and hot as hell outside, Morty was not ashamed to be dressed in a tank top and a pair of boxer briefs. Anyway, Summer had come in and sat on the other side of the couch. He recalled distinctly this is how it all went to shit. Her damned comment. “You guys are pretty openly affectionate today.”

Morty locked eyes on her and Rick’s hand tightened in Morty’s hair. He gave her a confused look. “Openly affectionate?”

Morty had taken note of how Rick tensed so badly he felt like a stone wall against the boy’s side. Also the fact that he didn’t say anything in response, just took a long hit of the drink in his hand, belching loudly and never taking his eyes off the T.V. in front of them. Morty let his legs fall to rest upon Rick’s. Summer smirked a little and her voice was low, almost a whisper, as she spoke, “Yeah, you guys forget which dimension you’re in? This one’s earth still has issues with your age gap and genetic relationship.”

So now here Morty was sitting in Rick’s lap. Thoughts that had previously never occurred to him running through his head. He knew that there were realities that didn’t give a damn about incest or shit like age gaps, but it was one of those things he thought about in the abstract. Thought about only in passing, not something he ever thought would apply to himself and his own situation. Morty glanced up as Rick scoffed, taking another drink. “First of all, _Summer,_ I don’t fuck my own grandson. S-S-Second of all, who the _fuck _asked you? Y-Your opinion is irrel-urrp-irrelevent. And-And even if I did, wh-what the fuck would it matter? _You_ obviously don’t care if your lack of displayed disgust is any indicator. B-Beth would be easy to convert to the mindset that it didn’t fucking matter, cause it doesn’t. And nobody gives a fuck about Jerry. So once again, the topic of me fucking or not fucking Morty is irrelevant.”

Morty let out a squeak and brought up his legs again. Rick’s fingers raked through Morty’s hair, tugging the boy to the elder man’s shoulder. Morty was still speechless, Summer had rolled her eyes and focused on the show that Rick had been watching. Morty couldn’t get his mind off it. What would Rick be like as a romantic partner? Morty couldn’t even think the word boyfriend. It just didn’t apply. Rick was this larger than life figure in the lives of everyone who met him. It was too _juvenile_ of a descriptor, but it did bring about the questions. Would he be sweet or just as venomous as he usually is? Would he defer to said romantic partner or treat them like he treated everyone else? And if he didn’t, how could a person be with someone who didn’t give a solid fuck about their existence? Morty remembered suddenly a random picture he had seen of his mother’s that had shown Rick and Diane. They had been standing underneath a tree and Rick seemed to be in the middle of nuzzling against Diane’s jaw, he had seemed so gentle with her. Something told Morty though that Diane had been a very special case, and Rick hadn’t ever been like that with any other person.

Morty jumped as his phone started ringing and it was a number he didn’t recognize. In fact, the number had alien letters in it, so it definitely wasn’t someone he knew. Morty rolled his eyes and put aside the thought of a romantic relationship with Rick. He held up the phone to the scientist. Rick would hand out Morty’s number occasionally when they met someone who Rick deemed to be a potential for any kind of business. The scientist wasn’t paying attention at first so Morty nudged his leg with his foot. Rick glanced down and then leaned back a little so he could see the phone. “I-It’s for you, Rick.”

“G-Give me that,” Rick said taking the phone. To Morty’s surprise the scientist picked him up and carried him toward the garage as he answered the phone. “Rick, here! Who are you and what do you want?”

Morty snorted at Rick’s answer to the phone. He always had found it humorous how Rick could go from sounding super excited to lethal in all of three seconds. Rick clutched Morty closer as he closed the garage door behind him. He watched Rick with interest as the scientist sat him down on the dryer and then rummaged through his chemical cabinet. What it really was, was a small refrigerator he kept underneath the work bench. These chemicals were the safest ones he had. He also kept his good liquor in there. Rick pulled out a vial of cyan blue liquid. It matched his sweater. Morty recognized it as the Operation Phoenix serum. It was the contingency in that particular endeavor. The idea was, if Rick couldn’t accomplish transferring his consciousness into one of the clone bodies with little to no side effects, the serum was supposed to de-age his original body. What did he need that for?

“And what do I get out of doing this for you?” Rick said setting the vial on rack on the desk. He burped loudly as he crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair. “I’m not interested in your problems, what do you have that will make this interesting for me?”

Morty dropped down from the dryer. The cold of the concrete seeping into his bones from the floor. It actually felt nice with the summer heat. Morty padded over to the workbench and picked up the vial. He swiveled it a little and held it up to the light. He remembered the first time Rick had pulled it out and explained Operation Phoenix in its entirety. The liquid sparkled like bright blue glitter when held directly in the light. He turned to Rick, the man was kind of spaced out while listening to the person on the line. He looked like he was staring at Morty’s stomach, and then he would roll his eyes, confirming that he was never really looking at what was in front of him. Rick barked out a laugh that made Morty jump and then a vicious smirk crawled its way across Rick’s face. “You think that will be enough? Y-You want me to waste my time on this sentimental bullshit, and you won’t even cough up some good stuff to-to sweeten the pot? You-You-You’re real presumptuous.”

Morty watched as Rick paused, fully paying attention to what the person was saying. Interest flashed across his face before it resumed its usual bitter indifference. Rick reached forward and gently pulled the vial from his hand. It was a stark contrast to the venom that filled his tone. “Th-That’s better. Make it eighty-thousand on top of the other thing and you got a deal. Not my problem. You either come up with it and meet me on Dock 9, or well, you know what happens to people who don’t pay up for my product.”

Morty cringed a little remembering the last time someone had thought they could get by with swindling the scientist. Rick had come back to the ship literally dripping with blood. It had taken a whole week for the blood that stained his normally powder-blue hair to get out. Rick pulled the phone away from his ear, hung up, and handed it back to Morty. “Here you go, kid.”

“W-What did they want, Rick?” Morty clutched the phone to his chest and leaned against the workbench. Rick held up the vial. “The Operation Phoenix serum?”

Rick rolled his eyes and gently shook the vial. He belched loudly as he sat back and leaned on the workbench as well. “N-No, dumbass, he wanted a de-aging serum. Something about h-his girlfriend being crazy young or some stupid shit.”

“H-H-How young?” Morty asked feeling himself outwardly cringe. He knew it was years of social norms coming out to play. Internalized prejudice Rick had called it once.

“I don’t kn-know, and I don’t care! Now, I got to get to work on this,” Rick waved his hand dismissively as he pulled up the equation for the serum on the tablet that was sitting on the workbench.

“D-Do you need any help, Rick?” Morty asked backing up as Rick leaned on his elbow and started fiddling with the math for the serum. 

“You know what, Morty? Yeah, go down to Operation Phoenix and grab me all the ingredients for the serum. You can do that, can’t you, Morty?” Rick said just as dismissively. Morty rolled his eyes and pulled the hidden lever that dropped the floor about a foot away from the workbench down to the correct sector of the sub-lab. He was met with the giant tubes that contained Rick at age forty, twenty, fifteen, and six. The serum ingredients were in the cabinet on the wall. Morty sighed as he grabbed them, flipping the lever again. “He-Here you go, Rick.”

“Y-Y-You can go now, it’s mostly just math at this point, Morty, math and testing,” Rick waved his hand to shoo Morty out. He knew he would probably be mostly useless when it came to math. He had been getting better since he decided to just learn everything he needed to know for school on his own, along with his knowledge obtained from many adventures with Rick, and things he'd picked up from countless conversations with Rick, but regardless he was still pretty useless when it came to that kind of math.

Morty walked back out of the garage and went back to the couch. Summer was still there now watching what looked like an alien reality tv-show. He went back to the spot where he and Rick had been sitting. Summer spared him a glance as he sat down, only to completely turn to him a second later. “No adventures today? I was sure when he carted you off we wouldn’t see either of you for a couple of days.”

Morty shot her glare. He now knew what she was implying with comments like that. And really it still was all around a weird thought. “N-No, geez, Summer. Rick just got a call, and now he’s doing math, which I-I’m pretty useless at sooo…”

She nodded like she didn’t really believe him but returned to her show anyway. Morty couldn’t help glancing toward the garage. Did they really act that much like a couple? Morty didn’t think so. Rick’s clingy-ness was a new development but that was really the only indicator to Morty that he even meant anything to scientist. For Morty, he knew Rick was important. Rick meant the world to Morty to the point he would and had killed for the man. As much as he hated to admit it, Morty loved the adventures he and his grandfather went on. He loved how unpredictable they are, no matter how crazy and fucked up they ended up being Morty would have lived a boring life with nothing to show for it if it hadn’t been for Rick. He’d seen the most fantastic of things while on the craziest adventures with Rick. But them acting like a couple? He really wasn’t sure the merit that statement held. Morty looked down at the couch, might as well ask. “Hey, Summer. Do Rick and I really seem like a couple to you?”

Summer looked over at Morty as if he had asked her if the sky was blue. It was a look he frequently received from Rick. “Are you seriously asking me that? You can’t see it?”

Morty felt his brow furrow in confusion. “See what?”

Summer groaned and rolled her eyes. “You really are as dumb as Rick says if you can’t see it. You’re obviously his favorite grandchild, and he’ll drag you off for days on end. Any kind of ‘adventure’ he goes on with anyone else, he’s only half interested. You remember when he had mom thinking she was a clone? Apparently, he told mom that despite going into that weird playland he had created for her, and basically finding out that she had left her friend in there for like thirty years, what they were doing wasn’t an adventure because it didn’t have—something along the lines of—stakes, a way to benefit him, and you.”

“B-Bullshit,” Morty said with a scoff. He wasn’t that important to Rick. Despite how attached he gets to his current Morty, there is always a replacement. He couldn’t say he blamed the man, if he lost Rick suddenly he would probably end up moving to a dimension that had a Rick really similar to his. He would miss the eccentric scientist no matter how deep in denial he was.

Summer shrugged and looked back at the T.V. “Whatever you want to believe, little brother, but I’m telling you. There is something there. And besides it’s not like it would matter anyway. Infinite realities, there is probably hundreds of them where incest is celebrated.”

“Why the hell would incest be celebrated?”

Both siblings looked up as their father entered the room a look of complete disgust on his face. Morty almost laughed when both he and his sister simultaneously rolled their eyes. Summer actually groaned. “Shut up, dad, there is no room for your single-dimensional prejudice.”

“Okay, ouch,” Jerry said as he sat down in the chair off to side of the room. Morty brought his knees to his chest. Since his parent’s first and second divorce, Jerry’s attempted assassination of Rick, and the incident that lost him his arms, well, put it this way Morty had lost all empathy. He had empathy to a fault, or so Rick constantly told him, but Jerry had wasted it all. Rick may not be the best, but he sure as hell was the best thing to ever happen to Morty and well hurting Rick was just unforgivable. Rick technically wasn’t even supposed to tell him about what actually happened on the little adventure Morty had sent them on, but when Rick had come back pissed, drunkenly babbling about betrayal and how people should really learn not to cross Rick Sanchez, well Morty had questions. Safe to say though, Jerry in any reality has officially made it on to the admittedly short list of people Morty could either kill himself or just let die if ever put in that situation. “But seriously? Incest? That’s just disgusting.”

Summer rolled her eyes. Morty held himself tighter, that internalization was rearing its head. He knew his dad was the biggest idiot in the multiverse. Morty shook his head, actual intelligent conversation over with. Morty turned his attention to the T.V.

_Don’t think about it._


	2. Morty

Morty didn’t realize how lost in his own mind he had been until it hit him that he had forgotten that it was the night that his mother invited Jerry over for a biweekly dinner. Normally he would have no issue with this, just play along, but when he had come to the table for dinner at the mother’s call and Jerry was already going on about this masseuse lady he had met that was teaching him all kinds of things, well, Morty almost walked right back out of the dining room.

His mother was dishing things out on to plates half-way listening to Jerry, Summer also half-listening. Rick was no where to be seen. Not surprising in all actuality, he was probably absorbed in his serum. Morty sighed and took his normal seat, thanking his mother when she gave him food and trying to tune out Jerry’s babble.

Eventually he heard his mother sigh, most likely accompanied by an overly-dramatic eye roll that Morty was pretty sure had been carried down through Sanchez genes. “Jerry. This is a dinner for you to connect with your children not ramble on about your daily life.”

To Morty’s complete unsurprise Jerry looked properly chastised and nodded in submissive compliance to his mother’s will. Jerry sat up straighter and cleared his throat. “So, Summer, Morty, tell me, how things are going with you two?”

“Nothing of import, dad, it’s summer,” Summer rolled her eyes and stuffed some of the chicken his mother had made into her mouth.

Morty was about to agree with Summer and let the table fall into awkward silence, when he received a very meaningful look from his mother. Morty sighed, despite her many, many faults, unlike his father the boy did care for her. “I-I’ve been on a lot of adventures lately. Is that masseuse you met an alien, dad, or human? Cause I know a couple, but they’re from a different galaxy.”

Morty worked to keep the slight interest in his face as Jerry’s brightened at his paying interest to something he had said. “Oh, she’s human! Nothing wrong with just plain old humans sometimes. Besides she taught me this really cool massage thing for your neck. It’s supposed to insight relaxation throughout out all your limbs.”

“Oh, yeah?” Morty asked taking a bite of his food and feigning interest in the matter. He honestly really didn’t care, but as he knew it was his job to take one for the team. His mother had been dealing with the idiot for hours, and Summer rejected his entire existence, so that left Morty. _Wonderful_.

“Yeah!” Jerry leaned over to Morty his hands out. “Would you like to see?”

“Uh, S-Sure,” Morty said glancing at Summer and his mom. They were watching the exchange with mild interest. More interested in their meals. Morty scooted back to come closer to his father, but the man had already stood up and came up behind him. To be honest, he was not looking forward to this. He had a feeling something bad and most likely extremely frustrating was about to happen.

“Really all you have to do is apply pressure to the right spots,” Morty stretched out his back and tilted his head giving his father more room. His father’s fingers started to press on random spots in his neck, it definitely was not promoting relaxation. That was until his father pressed particularly hard on where his C4 vertebrae was and Morty’s whole arms spazzed out and then dropped dead. “See? Worked like a charm.”

His mother looked over and looked kind of concerned. “Are you alright, Morty?”

Morty rolled his eyes. “Fine, mom. Dad, it didn’t ‘work like a charm’. You just fucked up my arms, _again_.”

“Jerry!”

“Dad, what the hell?”

Morty felt a little affection for his mother and sister for rising to his defense. His father backed up with his hands held up placatingly. “What? I didn’t do anything accept what she told me!”

Morty rolled his eyes. “I’m p-pretty sure you didn’t do it exactly as she instructed, it felt like you were just poking me r-r-randomly. Shocker, really, but you just happened to poke really fucking hard on the microchip that connects my arms to my nervous system. N-Now I have to go get them fixed, again, may I be excused, mom?”

“Of course, sweetheart, and tell Rick his dinner will get cold if he doesn’t come eat it,” Beth said to him as he stood up. Leaving the table, he couldn’t help but feel some satisfaction at Jerry’s now utterly dejected expression.

“I’ll just take it too him once he fixes my arms. He’s really busy at the moment,” Morty told her and wandered off toward the garage. He hadn’t ever really had to feel what it was like to miss his arms. Rick had replaced them almost immediately after they had to be removed the first time. He remembered he couldn’t even feel them after what Jerry had caused to happen to them, but that was as close as it got. What had happened was, Morty had found Jerry poking around the garage a few days after his seventeenth birthday and when he went in to remind his idiot of a father that Rick would be home any second, Jerry had somehow picked up and activated the micro-neutrino bombs Rick had been working on. Morty on instinct shoved his father out of the way of the smaller than expected but still rather large explosion, but he had to get his arms amputated for his efforts. He had instantly gone into shock and that was the only time that he remembered not having arms. So walking through the house, not distracted by shock and suddenly very much aware of his lack of arms was a weird feeling.

When Morty reached the garage and the door was shut, he swore softly underneath his breath. Why did they have rounded doorknobs? Morty leaned his head against the door, only to hear a rather loud swear from Rick and the sound of shattering glass. Well, as good a time as any. He knocked on the door gently with his head. He heard a louder swear and then, “Just open it!”

“Would if I could, Rick,” Morty shouted back at him. He heard more swearing and the sound of shuffled footsteps across the concrete.

The door was suddenly yanked open and Morty was met with a very irritated version of his grandfather. Rick scowled down at him, despite making it over half-way through puberty he hadn’t grown much at all, so Rick towered over him as usual, minus an few inches. “What the hell is wrong with your arms?”

“J-Jerry fucked them, he di-did this weird shit to my neck and th-they stopped-They went dead,” Morty explained hoping his own irritation with his ignorant imbecile of a father was as palpable as he was trying to make it.

Rick rolled his eyes so hard it looked like it might actually hurt. “Get in here, Morty.”

Morty walked into the garage and was directed to sit down at the workbench. Rick moved aside all the chemicals he had been working with and started tugging on Morty’s shirt. “C-Come on, off with it.”

Morty shot the scientist a glare which caused Rick to snicker profusely as he pulled the shirt off of Morty’s limp arms. “L-Lay your head down on the desk, this is gonna hurt.”

“Awe, Rick,” Morty whined a little as he felt a sharp pain of something cutting into his skin over the microchip. “D-Damnit, Rick!”

“I-I gave you fair warning,” Rick told him followed with a large burp, Morty could hear the eye roll in his tone of voice. Although he actually jumped when Rick let out an angry growl. “Wh-What the fuck was that idiot doing?! A-A-Attempting to poke pressure points? That fucking idiot completely crushed it!”

“C-Can you fix it, Rick?” Morty let out a little worriedly. He didn’t know how he would cope if Rick couldn’t and he just had no arms any more.

Rick scoffed a little. “’Course, I can. Don’t ask stupid questions.”

Morty made an affirmative noise. He let himself relax as Rick pressed a small towel to his neck and started working on finding the replacement chip. He remembered when Rick had come into the garage after the explosion. Thankfully he had been terribly accurate about when Rick would be back, because after the explosion only a few seconds passed before Rick portaled in and then Morty had been carted off to a hospital. Rick had been furious, more furious than even Beth, especially after he figured out Morty had been doing exactly as he was supposed to, and it had been all Jerry’s fault. This anger had been different though. It wasn’t the normal explosive anger that Morty faced when he fucked up on mission, it was silent and soft. Morty had only ever seen that kind of anger come from Rick a couple of times, the desecration that followed anger like that. It was the stuff that made up Morty’s nightmares. Rick had once spent an entire week going from one planet to the next in a specific solar system that had incited that anger. He annihilated every last person there, nothing was left except a massive junk field of broken planets, ripped apart architecture, and shredded bodies. Morty was legitimately surprised when he came out of the garage with his new arms and found Jerry still alive.

“Deep breath, Mort,” Rick ordered around a burp and Morty felt the strange feeling of Rick’s fingers touching his bones as the scientist replaced the microchip. He felt a sharp shock of electricity burn down his spine and he couldn’t help the pained yelp that escaped him. He felt Rick’s hot hand on his side, the scientists thumb gently caressing Morty’s ribs. The surprise at the comforting gesture caused Morty to miss the spastic jerk of his arms as everything was up and running again. Rick pulled back and went about healing up Morty’s neck. When he was done, he patted Morty’s shoulder and pulled back. “There. Sh-Should be fully functional now. I-I’ll work on figuring something out, so this doesn’t happen while out on adventures. W-W-Wouldn’t want it to happen to your legs as well, mid battle and everything.”

Morty twitched his fingers, as he took in Rick’s snickered out words, the familiar feeling of his arms being there clicked into place in his brain. He slowly sat up and stretched out his arms. “Wow, Rick. Thanks.”

“Su-urggh-e,” Rick belched out and Morty spun around only to freeze. It was Rick standing in front of him, but not Rick at the same time. Morty suddenly remembered the shattering of glass that had prompted him to get Rick to open the door. Morty opened his mouth to say something but found no words would come out.

Rick was younger.

His normally pale blue hair was now a deep azure, he had no wrinkles whatsoever, and his clothes seemed to fit just a little off. Morty watched as Rick rolled his eyes and looked down at Morty. “Wh-What the hell is wrong with you? I got something on me?”

“Uh, youth,” Morty said with a small laugh, words finally reaching him. Rick’s face crumpled in confusion and Morty looked around for something reflective. He found a small shining sheet of metal on the floor, he hurriedly picked it up and held it up for Rick to see. “I-I-I guess you got the math right.”

Morty watched as Rick’s expression went from confusion, to shock, to smug all in a span of ten seconds. Rick ran his fingers through his now thicker and longer messily knotted azure locks. His hair had fallen flat from its normally mad scientist style and fell in manner similar to when Rick had been in a band. “Damn, I look good! I’m fucking amazing, fuck age. Operation Phoenix a success, boom!”

Rick let out a kind of crazed sounding cackle and Morty couldn’t help but mimic Rick’s infectious excitement. He laughed a little and set down the metal. Rick had taken to looking at his skin. He had removed his shirt, and Morty couldn’t stop his eyes from traversing the new body in front of him. He hated to admit it, given his earlier freak out, but Rick was right, he did look good. Damn good.

Morty shook his head and forced himself to look away. He picked up his own shirt and pulled it back on. “Y-You should probably figure that out. I’ll go grab your dinner.”

Rick didn’t even notice when Morty fled the room. Thoughts of being attracted to his grandfather plagued the teen’s mind. Morty had realized a long time ago he really had no preference of gender when it came to romantic interests, especially when he met aliens with no actual way to tell which was which. So finding a man attractive was no issue, no crisis to be avoided. But finding out he was attracted to his grandfather? That was a whole other ordeal. He saw it now though, Rick was attractive, hell, Morty could even say he was hot. Now that he was thinking about it, Rick was hot at any age.

_Don’t think about it._

The familiar phrase Rick had uttered to him countless times played out in his mind. Morty shook his head and made his way back into the dining room. His family was still sitting at the table and his mother turned to him when he came in. “You all fixed up?”

Morty nodded and proceeded to make his grandfather a plate. “Y-Yeah, uh, Rick fixed me right up. He made a little breakthrough actually and is still pretty distracted. I-I-I’ll make sure he eats though, mom, don’t worry.”

Beth nodded and ruffled Morty’s hair as she rose from the table. “Thank you, Morty.”

Morty glanced at Summer when he turned back to the table. She mouthed “Suck-up” at him before downing her cup of water. Morty stuck his tongue out at her and turned away from the table. “Have fun with dad, Summer, I have to go make sure Rick eats.”

Summer instantly started sputtering and Morty laughed as he left the dining room. Serves her right. He didn’t suck up to mom, he just knew everything, and everyone went a lot more smoothly when she was appeased. Morty entered the garage again holding the plate of Rick’s food with one hand. Rick presumably become bored with the novel of his youth and was now completely dressed and sitting at the work bench mixing, what Morty assumed to be the serum, in a beaker. Morty came over to him and set the plate down in an empty spot. “Hey, here’s your dinner, Rick. Y-Y-You should eat some of it.”

Rick didn’t even acknowledge Morty’s presence, so Morty sighed and picked up another tablet that had been sitting on the workbench. Rick suddenly slammed his hands on the desk, causing Morty to jump. “W-W-What the hell, Rick?”

“Morty, I just remembered, I made this thing for you,” Rick spun and slid the tablet out of Morty’s hands. He flicked through some files until he found the right one. “L-Look Morty! I made this! It’s a program that has a set of 100 questions and each time you finish a set with one-hundred percent it will reset with another set. This is exactly what you need, Morty. It’s going to help with you getting your education, that your parents are so in love with.”

“What? R-R-Really, Rick?” Morty was actually surprised. It wasn’t very often that Rick did things for Morty. Morty looked down at the program and scrolled through the questions. “That’s amazing, Rick! How’d you know I was planning on dropping out and just studying to get my GED?”

Rick belched as turned back to his concoction. “I’m not an idiot, Morty. I could see where this was going, when you started reading your textbooks in any spare time you have. Morty, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, school is stupid, Morty, they have structured learning programs, and-and-and they teach you that there’s only a select few courses of action. It’s a prime breeding ground for bureaucracy, Morty. It’s not a place for smart people.”

“Thought I wasn’t smart?” Morty asked feeling a little smug. It was moments like these that Morty couldn’t help the love he felt for Rick. He knew better than anyone what kind of person Rick was, he was a grade-A asshole to literally everyone, but underneath that Rick cared. The scientist would never admit it, he would rather die first, but Morty knew. He had experienced it first-hand just how much Rick cared, from his clingy-ness to that fact that Rick made this program so he could learn everything he needed.

“In comparison to me, yes, you aren’t, but who is?” Rick shrugged as if the words that came out of his mouth wasn’t the equivalent of actual compliment. It was these moments that Morty lived for. Rick turned to him quickly again and pulled down the tablet, so he could see. “But look at this, everything in here is a link. So if you come across something you don’t understand, a word, a term. Just click this little question mark in the corner and it will pull up every word on the page, and-and-and you just find the right one and it will take you to the best cite for explaining what that is. It’s programmed to ask you questions that you will specifically need to know for that stupid GED you want.”

“Y-You do realize if I already have the equivalent of a high school diploma, there isn’t really any reason for me to not spend all my time going on adventures with you, right, Rick?” Morty said with a small smile. Knowing Rick he probably did realize that and he made the whole program so he could monopolize more of Morty’s time, but Morty found he didn’t really care about that. It was Morty’s time that Rick wanted, Morty’s attention that Rick went to all sorts of lengths to obtain. Morty clutched the tablet to his chest and dropped down to the floor, he pressed his back against the workbench as Rick shrugged and went back to the serum.


	3. Morty

“Morty, I’ve figured it out!” Rick exclaimed excitedly, the next day. He placed a gentle hand on Morty’s head and the boy looked up. He had been sitting on the floor at Rick’s feet for a few hours now, going through the questions. Rick had done an excellent job on the program. Morty for the first time felt like he was actually learning something and not just being fed useless information.

Morty stood up, placing the tablet to the side. Rick was holding up a vial with some purple liquid in it. It sparkled like the original OP-Serum but seemed a lot thicker. Rick swiveled it in Morty’s direction a smirk spread across his now youthful face. “It’s done, Morty! This serum will age you down about fifty years with each dose.”

“So, is that how old you are now? Twenty?” Morty asked curiously. He still had a bit of an issue getting used to Rick being so young, but Rick was Rick and so far his personality and the way he acted didn’t seem any different. Not like with his first execution of the Operation. That was a disaster.

“Twenty-two, baby! I can still buy alcohol, motherfucker!” Morty couldn’t help but snort at being called ‘baby’ and ‘motherfucker’ in the same breath. Also, the absurdity that Rick is worried about the law when acquiring alcohol. Rick put a cork in the vial and belched as he stored it away in a small case. “Give me your phone and go get dressed, Morty. We’ve got business to do.”

“Awe, geez, alright, Rick, I’ll be back,” Morty handed over his phone and ran off to get dressed.

Twenty-two, huh? That was only five years older than Morty. So far the only side-effects Morty had noticed was that Rick had more energy and was extra eager to get things done. That was just Rick though, in all honesty. Rick had moments where his energy and excitement outweighed even Morty’s. Twenty-two and Rick’s old mind, that could be either really dangerous or really productive. 

Morty found his clothes and pulled them on, tugging on his shoes as he bounced down the stairs and made his way into the garage. Rick was pulling at the skin on his hand looking utterly bored. When Morty arrived fully decked out in his normal yellow hoodie, some jeans and shoes, Rick immediately perked up and ran around to get into the ship.

Once Morty got in they were the on their way. Morty settled in his normal position pulling up one of his knees. “H-Hey, Rick. Now, that you’re young again do you have a-an-anything you want to do?”

Rick burped loudly as he inputted the coordinates and let the ship fly itself. “I can d-do anything I w-want, Morty! The world is my oyster, and all th-that bullshit!”

Morty shrugged and turned to look out his window. He had found it utterly hilarious when Rick had come down to breakfast that morning, Beth and Summer actually started to choke on their food at the sight of him. Rick was now technically younger than his own daughter, and it was something Morty couldn’t help but find hilarious. It took both his sister and his mother a while longer to get used to it, all throughout breakfast they couldn’t make eye contact but at the same time Summer couldn’t stop staring in Rick’s direction. By the time Rick and Morty had wandered off towards the garage, he wasn’t entirely sure they had accepted it in its entirety.

Morty found it was something he quickly adjusted to, that very well could be because of the exposure he received from various adventures. Rick suddenly being younger was far from the most fucked thing he’s ever seen. Besides he found it really interesting to note the differences between how Rick used to be and now. The major difference he had noticed was the blue he had always associated with Rick. When he was seventy-two Rick’s hair and eyes had been a pale soft blue, usually matching the cyan of his sweaters. Now Rick’s hair was a deep azure, his eyes the same. Morty had never seen them so clear. He supposed he had attributed the blue of his hair to age, but it seemed that wasn’t the case at all. It now looked like something the scientist had been born with. Another thing was his energy, Rick had generally more of an appetite and seemed more excitable than he usually was. He was still as snarky and venomous as ever, whenever he opened his mouth but when he kept it shut, Morty could swear Rick looked almost _soft._

Morty knew if he ever voiced that observation out loud, Rick would dismantle his arms and legs, leaving him an invalid until he felt satisfied Morty had learned his lesson. That didn’t stop him from thinking it, though. Morty glanced over at Rick, even now he couldn’t help but come to same conclusion. Rick was leaned back looking relaxed, one hand on the wheel and the other tapping out a small rhythm on his thigh, just watching the stars and planets race by as they traveled towards Dock 9. Morty had never seen Rick look so at peace, which was disconcerting on some level. It was the same Rick inside, nothing had changed about his personality, his decision making, his maturity, none of it had changed. Maybe a twenty-two-year-old Rick was just more expressive than his elderly counterpart. Who knew?

It didn’t take as long as usual to make it to Dock 9. Dock 9 sounded a little more professional than it actually is. Basically, it’s a part of a gigantic parking garage in the Kirelan Galaxy, known for their vacation spots. That being said, Dock 9 was the level dead center of the entire garage, it was the least supervised so many a criminal use it for business deals. This is Rick’s preferred spot to make a trade, given his most common crime is being an arms dealer. He could probably be legit if it wasn’t for his complete and utter disdain for bureaucracy, and light-year long criminal record. Oh! And can’t forget his propensity for becoming bored at a moment’s notice. So underhanded and under the table is always Rick’s motto, he doesn’t care what you need it for as long as you can pay up.

The scientist parked in a spot and glanced around the garage, before pulling his flask from his coat pocket, taking a long drink before letting out a belch. Morty noticed his clothes still weren’t fitting right. Rick could produce an entire wardrobe in five minutes, did he not notice? It wasn’t something drastic, just his sweaters tended to be looser, his pants were a bit too long, and his lab coat no longer fit tightly against his body, they were rumpled and wrinkled where the fabric bunched. There was a high chance, Rick didn’t even notice. He never did really care about things like that.

Morty tore his gaze away from the scientist next to him. He was noticing Rick far too much to be comfortable in himself. He knew in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter. The main problem with family members being together, _like that_, is that when they reproduce there is a very high chance of birth defects. That problem didn’t apply to Morty, at all. Despite in most places it actually being illegal, a lot of people in history were all about it, people married their cousins. Hell, Edgar Allen Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin, married her! So, really Morty knew it didn’t matter, and if it was anyone else he wouldn’t care, whatever floats their boat and all that, but with himself?

Morty sighed to himself, bringing out his phone to focus on it as they waited for the guy to show up. He blamed Jerry. Jerry while not a major influential figure in his life now, is someone who has for the majority of Morty’s life made a fantastic display of both his planetary mindset and gargantuan insecurities, which he masked with the views and beliefs of the majority. Now, Morty has since learned that one planets way of doing something is _never_ going to be the same as another planets, let alone across the entire Multiverse of infinite possibilities. That being said, the former influence Jerry had as Morty’s father, leaves its toll on him. He constantly has to remind himself that it doesn’t matter what other people do, or how they believe unless it is a direct harm to himself. And a simple belief system doesn’t pose much of a threat. Years and years of telling him something was wrong, drilling in how _wrong _it is over and over; it’ll take a massive change to just erase all of that.

_Don’t think about it._

He sighed again, finding some comfort at the Cardinal Rule of Rick and Morty adventures. It doesn’t matter, everything is completely fine. And it’s not as though Rick is actively trying to get into his pants thereby forcing him to come to a conclusion right that minute. He has time to come to grips with it, and it’s not like its actually a pressing issue. Rick has never made voice of wanting something more with Morty, and Rick was a person of very vocal opinions. There was nothing to worry about.

Morty was so lost in his own head, he jumped when there was a loud knock on Rick’s window. Turning he found some one who looked like a cross between a Gromflomite and a Human. He had the antenna and the eyes, his mouth and general body structure was human though, as far as Morty could see.

Rick rolled down his window and propped his elbow up on the door. “You got my stuff?”

“Rick Sanchez?” The Crossover cocked a brow at Rick while hugging two large bags and a metal briefcase to his chest.

“Duh! Who else?” Rick sneered causing his client to flinch as he gestured for Morty to hand him the box of serum. “That better be what we agreed upon.”

The threat was implied but Morty knew that tone better than Rick’s victims did. That tone wasn’t one you argued with if you wanted to live. Leaning down at his feet Morty picked up the small case that held the serum. Rick turned towards Morty and flicked open the case, there was the serum, a much smaller vial and various corks. Rick pulled out the serum and the vial measuring out one dose, he quickly corked it and replaced everything. Morty quickly pulled the case towards himself relocking it. He knew his responsibilities. Rick turned back and smirked slightly as he shook the vial in his client’s direction. “Just so we’re clear on what you’re getting, this is payment for just one dose. This dose, however, w-will age you back about fifty years. Exhibit A, me! That good enough?”

“That’ll do just fine,” His voice came out cocky, more so than before as he handed out the two bags and the case, that didn’t usually pose a very good sign for Rick’s mood. Rick took the payment quickly, tossing them in Morty’s direction before holding out the vial. Morty flailed slightly but miraculously caught both bags and the case without injury to himself or the items. “Have a reasoning similar to my own to test the product, Rick?”

The meaningful glance he threw Morty’s direction, caused the teen to blush bright crimson in awkwardness. The idea that Rick would simply de-age himself so he could score a date with Morty was preposterous, Rick could and probably would have anyone he wanted. Rick scoffed and rolled his eyes, before giving his client a deadly smirk causing him to lose whatever confidence he had a moment ago. “The _only _reason I d-de-aged myself, was immortality. So, I can continue to be the smartest man in the universe for all eternity, f-forever stomping out the egos of idiotic little child molesters like yourself. Y-_You _who has to pay _me_ to get laid. If we ever do business again, anymore cracks like that and you’re bound to get shot.”

His client looked thoroughly chastised, clutching the vial to his chest as if in fear Rick would take it back. Morty couldn’t blame him though. The sheer malice that tainted Rick’s tone overshadowed the impediment, the fact that Rick stuttered out the words never even occurred to anyone who heard it. Morty had never been on the receiving end of that tone of voice, and he never wanted to be. With a small growl of irritation, Rick threw the ship into gear and pulled recklessly out of Dock 9.

Grumbling about stupid idiots and their stupid questions, Rick took a long drink from his flask before spinning the lid back into place and slipping it back into his coat. Morty picked up the case from the floor in front of him. He decided to change the topic, get Rick’s mind off what irritated him in the first place. “So, what is this stuff, Rick?”

Rick glanced over at Morty, his unnaturally blue eyes fading from anger to excitement in the span of a few seconds. “This, Morty, is going to change everything. T-Th-This is Isotope 654.”

“D-Does it work like Isotope 322?” Morty flicked the switches on the case to open it. Inside was a large enclosed beaker that held a glowing purple liquid enclosed in a black foam like filling for the rest of the case.

Rick rolled his eyes and let out a belch while shaking his head. “No, Morty. I-Isotope 322 is an alternative energy source. Isotope 654 is a liquidized version of crystalized xanthenite. Do you realize what can be done with this stuff, Morty? N-N-Not only can I conduct electrons across dimensions, but in this liquid form I could find out exactly what it takes to make it. I could mass produce it for myself or anyone willing to buy it, Morty! This is hard to get! There is only like three timelines that have access to this stuff and even then it’s super hard to get. Th-That guy could have died getting this for me, Morty!”

“That’s really cool, Rick,” Morty responded giving him a small smile. “Y-Y-You could, uh, use the concept to create a gun or something and kill a guy in every reality he exists in. I mean, someone has to be wishing something like that existed and would be willing to pay top dollar for it.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea, Morty,” A partially proud grin spread across Rick’s face and he reached across the console to ruffled Morty’s hair. “I’m actually proud! That’s definitely going on the list of things to do with this.”

Morty grinned and picked up one of the bags. Rick was successfully distracted. Morty always found it funny that for being the smartest man in the universe he’s very easily distracted. “What about these, Rick?”

“Oh, those are visans,” Rick said with a wave of his hand. “You can trade them in for flurbos at basically any federation minting facility. It’s like trading American dollars for pesos. You get so many more flurbos per visan.”

“Blips and Chits?” Morty asked in reply cocking a brow over at Rick.

Rick let out an excited laugh. “You’re damn right, Blips and Chits!”

It didn’t take long for Rick to trade out the visans for flurbos and laid in the course for Blips and Chits. The course from there wasn’t long either. Blips and Chits was somewhere they frequented often. When they arrived Morty bounced out of the ship holding the sacks of flurbos.

Rick who had been uncharacteristically quiet after being distracted by the purposes of the stuff he had acquired. He let the ship fly on auto-pilot and sat back in his seat, leaving Morty to his own devices. When Rick came around the car after they arrived, an odd expression had made it’s way onto his face.

Morty came over and looked up at him curiously. “Hey, R-Rick, are you alright?”

Rick’s eyes flicked toward him and he smiled in a way that Morty doesn’t see very often, holding out his hand for the bags of flurbos. “Yeah, Morty. I’m great.”

“A-Are you still thinking about what that dude said?” Morty hands over the bags while cocking his head. Rick started to lead the way into Blips and Chits.

He looked over at him with his normal grin on his face, the look that was previously in his eyes now gone. “Not even close, Morty. I-I’m only thinking about how much fun we’re about to have, baby!”

Morty watched as Rick shrugged and led the way into the arcade. He bit his lip in contemplation. Rick was lying, after all this time with Rick he could tell the difference whether Rick was telling the truth or not. That being said, he’s also learned the only real way to get Rick to open up about his feelings is either be stupid annoying about it until Rick yells out how he’s feeling in anger or wait until Rick comes to him for his opinion. It happens more often than one would think, making Rick angry only, well, makes Rick angry and no one likes an angry Rick.

Morty followed Rick into Blips and Chits, letting it go. It was best to wait for Rick. He would admit what he was feeling when it became to irritating for him not to voice it. Morty really just let everything go as he messed around with Rick. Nothing really to worry about. Well, Rick would sometimes look at Morty like he wanted to say something but he never did and a few seconds later he was back to normal. He once again shrugged it off and passed the Roy helmet back to Rick. They were having a Roy contest, see who could beat the other’s score.

Rick had started this back when Morty had turned sixteen, over the years Morty had been able to stay conscious of the fact that he was in a game. He was more on level with Rick and this time he was actually winning.

“Hey, Rick? I’m going to go fetch us some drinks, I’ll be right back,” Morty announced after a minute of watching Rick, laying a hand on Rick’s shoulder to get his attention.

“Grab me a beer, won’t you, M-Morty?” Rick asked, returning his attention back to the game a moment later.

“S-Sure thing, Rick.”

Morty waved his hand dismissively walking off towards the bar. The bar here had no age limit given the legal ages were different on every planet, it was a pain to keep up with all of them so they just made everything legal. After ordering his and Rick’s drink he took a seat at the bar to wait on them. He loved Blips and Chits. It was always so calm and carefree, everyone came here for fun, games and just a general good time. It was great.

“Morty Smith, Dimension C-185?”

“Y-Yeah?” Morty turned expecting the bartender, slightly confused how the guy knew his name. He didn’t think he and Rick came here that often.

All of sudden a bag was over Morty’s head and pain bloomed in his skull. One last thought entered his mind before blackness took hold.

_Goddamnit. Rick is going to be so pissed. _


	4. Rick

Rick pulled off the Roy helmet letting out an excited laugh. “Ah, yeah, baby! Look at that! I beat your score, Morty.”

Receiving no reply Rick turned to find Morty not where he was a little bit ago. He knew Morty had gone to fetch them a drink, but he should have been back by now. “Morty?”

What is taking him so long? Rick collected his tickets, stuffing them into a pocket in his lab coat, wondering off towards the bar. He didn’t see Morty anywhere. “T-That little shit probably got distracted by something. I-I thought I trained him better than that.”

Rick continued to wander towards the bar. Once he reached the counter and couldn’t see Morty anywhere. A frown took hold of Rick’s expression. This wasn’t looking good. Pushing some random losers out of the way, Rick laid his arm on the counter. “Yo, Marget.”

The Moopian behind the counter turned and squinted one of its eyes at Rick. _I did indeed see this Morty. He was waiting at the counter but when I turned to give him his drinks. He was being dragged away by a human that looked like an older version of you, except he had a long scar going diagonally across his face. _

Rick scowled. So Morty did know better than to wander off without telling anyone. Of course, he did, Rick C-185’s Morty is the best Morty. “Damnit! Alright, thanks, Marget!”

Rick waved to the Moopian as he walked away. This was bullshit. Some-Rick had kidnapped his Morty. When he found that pretentious motherfucker and apparently he was this pretentious motherfucker, he’d string them up and gut them from head to dick. Rick spun his keys around his hand as he got into the car, stuffing the keys into the ignition he attempted to smother his anger.

It wasn’t the normal amount of anger he felt for general things. His stupid emotions were always so much more intense when it concerned Morty. This young body didn’t help either. Sure, he was grateful to now essentially have the secret to immortality, he and Morty could literally go on adventures for centuries now. No one to stop them. But these fucking emotions. Rick turned the key in the ignition only for the engine to sputter and then go dead. “Oh, what the fuck?”

Rick yanked open his door and marched around toward the front hood. Angrily yanking the hood up he noticed various cords and bobbles inside that were totally destroyed. “Fucking goddamn cocksucker. H-He kidnaps my Morty then wrecks my goddamn car! What kind of motherfucker am I?!”

Rick grumbles more as he slams the hood shut and kicks it causing the car to get shoved back. He sighed. Well this was going to be annoying. Now he either had to go home and build a-goddamn-nother one or pack up a bunch of shit to come back here and fix it. That asshole.

Morty.

Fuck. This was going to have to wait. Morty came first. He was really getting tired of shit happening to Morty. It always brought out this shitty clinginess he didn’t even know he contained. Shooting a portal up against the door to Blips and Chits walking through it. He was going to have to set up that damn receiver to the transmitter he had implanted in Morty’s replacement limbs. Entering the garage, he started rummaging around for that damn receiver.

Rick remembered the first time he had to replace Morty’s limbs. The kid had fallen off a cliff onto a land mine. The damn thing had blown his fucking legs right off. He was bleeding out and quickly losing consciousness, he had quickly portaled Morty into the sub-lab and fixed him as quickly as he possibly could. Morty was unconscious for an entire week and when he woke up Rick had finished his new legs. He quickly attached them and ordered a mandatory break from their adventures, he would fiddle with whatever the hell he had already. Fuck with Operation Phoenix or whatever. But he was not taking Morty anywhere for a while. He barely remembered the week after he had made Morty’s legs to be honest. He knew he kept waking up in Morty’s bed, fully clothed, thank god. But he recognized when he laid off the alcohol for a bit that he was being a clingy little shit.

Eventually he accepted it and they started going on adventures again. He kept the fact that he was being clingy from Morty, but he knew the little shit knew. Especially when Rick had called up K. Michael to train the kid so he could protect himself, it was a nice deal three free guns for his assignments and Morty got extensive training in how to be a top-notch assassin. For some fucking reason though that didn’t completely ease Rick’s mind. He still worried extensively whenever he and Morty when out on adventures. He smothered it as best he could, through drink and scathing remarks, but he couldn’t stop how he started touching Morty.

Rick finally found the receiver. Setting it up in the middle of the of the garage, he flipped the switch turning the machine on. It wasn’t anything out of the norm, the touching. It just increased in frequency. The occasional hand running through his hair, or hand on his shoulder, or his arm, or the ruffling through his hair. Rick couldn’t stop! He had tried. He had forced himself to keep his hands to himself but that ended up with him hugging the shit out of Morty.

Then there was that pathetic, imbecilic monstrosity of a fucking dumbass, Jerry. Jerry had caused Morty to save him from a fucking explosion when that idiotic piece of shit knew he wasn’t allowed in the garage when Rick was gone. Morty knew that, he was doing exactly as he was supposed to. Keeping people out of the garage. Rick could barely contain himself from tearing Jerry to shreds with his bare hands. He wanted to, he had to order Summer and Beth to get that jackass far away from the house or he would. He was going to kill him. He hadn’t been entirely sure he could feel murderous rage like that outside of people betraying him, but apparently when people hurt his Morty, he was fully capable of it. He managed to suppress it enough though, to both make Morty’s new arms and set up all the house’s expenses to be taken out of his name. After that incident though, he really couldn’t control himself anymore.

That’s how Morty ended up with his new leisurely sitting position. Rick couldn’t stand Morty being too far away from him. Fuck, he hadn’t slept in his own room in months now. He felt the most at ease when Morty was in his lap and he had his hand in Morty’s hair, when he could feel each breath that went through his little companion’s body.

Rick paused his musing and adjusting of the receiver’s range. He suddenly saw what Summer and Flokak, the Klorian, had meant. They were acting like a couple. In fact, Rick now recognized most of the shit he had been doing was very similar to shit he’d done with Diane. He’d always held her whenever they were just leisurely watching T.V., he’d always needed to feel how close she was, always worried about her. Exactly like he had started to do with Morty.

Then it had made sense that he was worried and clingy with _his wife_. She was his wife after all, and while he had been prepared for most things that could happen. He still ended up getting captured by some of his more skeevy business partners, and at the time he was starting to wage war on the Gromflomites, so he wasn’t really the most safe person to be around. He had loved Diane, she held a place at the top of a very short list of people who could claim to have been loved by Rick Sanchez. Apparently, a list that now included Morty.

Rick rubbed the heels of his hands into his temples. Damnit, damnit, damnit. He had worked so damn hard to keep his distance, he had kept a tight lock on his emotions. He didn’t need to love his family, at least not the individual of any specific dimension. He could love them in the abstract and then if he lost them he could move on too a different dimension and everything would be fine. But this was different.

He was _in love_ with Morty.

Not just any Morty, either. This specific Morty, his Morty. Now, that he is in love with a dude, or even his grandson, wasn’t the problem. Shit, he had even accidentally taken care of the age gap. It was the fact that he, Rick-fucking-Sanchez, was in love with a person. Again. He had sworn after Diane, _no more_. He knew he broke that promise a little with Unity. He had loved her too, but nothing like with Diane, or now Morty.

How could he have let this happen? How could he have let it consume him with out ever even knowing it was happening? How, for being the smartest man in the universe, could he have been such fucking idiot?

Morty.

How did Morty feel? There was a very slim chance that he returned Rick’s affections and even then could he let it happen? Could he just continue to love Morty? Or did he want to stamp it out? Smother it until there was nothing left.

“Grampa Rick?”

Rick’s head snapped up towards the sound of a voice. Summer. Rick cleared his throat. Now was definitely not the time to be having this crisis, if, no _when_, he got Morty back he would make a decision then. “W-What is it, Summer?”

Summer cocked a knowing brow at him. It made his fingers twitch as he went back to setting up the receiver. She knew. She noticed it and apparently, had no qualms with it. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, letting himself love Morty. _No, Rick, focus, you dipshit. _Summer glanced around the garage. “Where’s Morty?”

“Out,” Rick growled out having finished setting up the receiver. He couldn’t tell her, it was just cause unnecessary panic and well, he wasn’t entirely sure he could say the words without freaking out himself. “What do you need him for?”

“His chores,” Summer responded with a shrug. “What’re you doing? That’s the receiver for Morty’s tracker. Morty isn’t just out running errands for you, is he?”

Sometimes Rick hated how much Summer knew about his inventions and the shit he had done to Morty. It worked as a viable contingency if he was out and couldn’t get back to the garage, but right now it was irritating. Rick fished out his flask taking a long swig as he settled on his ass with a small thump waiting for the receiver to find Morty. He drew it out as long as he could, letting out a large belch before growling out, “No.”

“Aw shit,” Summer stuffed her phone into her pocket an expression of worry taking over her face. “You’re going to get him back, aren’t you?”

Rick rolled his eyes then. Okay, was she only bright when the situation called for it? What the fuck did she think he was doing? “W-W-What the fuck do you think I’m doing here, _Summer? _Rolling around on the f-fl-floor for shits and giggles?”

“Alright, damn,” Summer held up her hands defensively, backing up towards the door. “I’ll go take care of Morty’s chores.”

“Don’t tell your mother,” Rick growled out as she started to leave, turning his attention back to the receiver when it beeped.

“Oh my god, I’m not an idiot, Grandpa,” She let out a roll of her own eyes walking towards the door. “I’ll tell her what you told me. He’s out running errands and won’t be back for a while.”

Rick didn’t even reply just quickly wrote down the coordinates of where Morty was. Dimension 89-B. What the fuck was this Rick doing, taking his Morty there? Had he kidnapped other Mortys? What the hell did he even want with Rick’s Morty?

Questions swirled around Rick’s mind as he gathered the necessary armaments to take on another Rick. His questions would soon be answered, and well if this Rick died in the crossfire, he’s really just helping everyone out in the end. No body needed a greedy Rick running around accumulating Morty’s. Once Rick had found everything he needed. He was met with the sound of a portal opening. _What now?_

Turning around Rick was met with two sets of Guard Rick and Mortys from the Citadel. There were a great deal of Rick and Mortys who wanted nothing to do with the Citadel of any set of Dimensions. The question was which were these fucknuts from? The rogue Citadel who had the biggest prick of a Morty as a president or one of the other ones. “What do you want?”

“Rick C-185, you are wanted for questioning for Morty Abductions across dimension sets, D, C, and E,” The Rick to the left sounded out in that uppity tone all Citadel pricks used.

Irritation lanced through Rick, he really had no fucking time for this. He needed to find his Morty. On top of that, what the fuck did they mean he was wanted for questioning about these abductions? His Morty was stolen too, why in the ever-loving-hell would he abduct _his own Morty? _“What the fuck? Has the Citadel melted your goddamn brains? Do you see a Morty around here? Why in the shit would I kidnap my own fucking Morty?”

The Morty to the right stepped forward a little. “You misunderstand, Rick. We are only here to escort you to the Citadel so you can give a statement of your own Mortys abduction.”

Rick rolled his eyes so hard it hurt. The only way to make these assholes leave was to go with them. Morty could handle himself on his own for a little bit, right? Unless they found those goddamn chips to his limbs. He really needed to find another way to hook those into Morty’s nervous system. It had just been the fastest and easiest solution at the time, he had planned on giving Morty the best upgrades he could, just hadn’t gotten around to it. Goddamnit. “Y-Y-You know what? Fine. What-the-fuck-ever. Let’s go, but make it fucking quick. I’ve got a Morty to find and a Rick’s ass to kick.”

The Mortys and Ricks turned and led the way through the portal behind them. Rick following close behind. Rick knew praying was fucking pointless. There was no god. No miraculous force to intervene when shit hit the fan. He couldn’t help it though. He _needed _his Morty to be okay. It was like a mantra thrumming through his bones.

_Stay safe, Morty. I need you to stay safe. _


	5. Morty

When Morty woke up, the first thing he noticed was all of his limbs were still functional. That was the good part. Unfortunately as his eyes started to focus in the dark he found he was stuck in a pitch black room, completely devoid of anything and there was a metal cuff around his ankle, attached to the wall. Who the fuck had captured him? _Why_ the fuck had they captured him?

Morty shook his head. This was dumb. Reaching down he tapped his middle fingers with his thumbs, triggering the amplified strength his metal limbs granted him. He usually kept it at normal capacity, so he doesn’t break anything accidentally. Now though, breaking everything is kind of necessary. Slamming his fist into the cuff on his ankle, it broke open with a soft clink on the floor. Standing up he flinched when the door suddenly slid open. Blinking at the brightness of the light, Morty held up his hands to block it.

“Very impressive, Morty. I wasn’t expecting that. Your Rick must have trained you better than I thought. Most Ricks don’t give a damn.”

Morty eyes adjusted quicker than he thought, blinking a couple times he could finally see. Standing in the door way was Rick. Or a Rick. He was obviously not his Rick, as this one had a long scar going diagonally across his face, in place of his normal lab coat was a black leather jacket that strongly resembled the lab coat, he wore black combat boots and dark black jeans. His shirt underneath the jacket, was yet again, black but with the large ‘R’ with a circle surrounding it, like the random flags Rick had made when he conquered something. Morty swallowed the fear that welled up from his stomach. Rick may not have personally trained him for this, but he had hired a bunch of other people to train him for it. Fear didn’t help in any hostage situation. “Y-Yeah, he did. So, what kind of fucked up dimension did you come from?”

“Ooh, a snarky, Morty,” Rick responded condescendingly leaning against the door. “If you must know, I’m Rick X-19. I brought you here because you are going to be the breakthrough I need. I’m going to make you the Rickest Morty there ever was, baby!”

Morty’s eyes widened. What? The Rickest Morty? Anxiety welled up in Morty’s chest and he struggled to smother it. He knew his emotions could easily be seen on his face and he hated it. He knew better than that. “T-Th-Th-The Rickest Morty?”

“That’s right,” Rick turned slightly and snapped his fingers. About six different Mortys ran into the room. They were all dressed in white shirts and pants, no shoes. By the vacant expressions on their faces, these Mortys were being controlled or something similar. They surrounded Morty, yanking back both his arms and legs another one placed a damp cloth over his face. Fear started to eat away at his stomach as darkness once again tugged at the edges of his vision. Morty tried to fight it as best he could. He didn’t know what the hell this Rick was going to do to him. As Morty lost the battle he could hear the maniacal cackle of Rick X-19 fade into the darkness.

When Morty woke up again. There was a bright white light above his head. There was a monitor off to his left side beeping occasionally with what Morty assumed was his heartbeat. Morty tried to sit up only to find his arms and legs strapped to the table. “A-Aw, jeez.”

Morty felt strange. His arms, legs, left eye, and back ached in a way frighteningly similar to how he woke up when Rick had replaced his arms and legs. What the fuck had this psycho Rick done to him? Morty blinked several times, after the sixth blink a grid spread out over the room from the left side of his vision. Damnit.

Well that explains the eye ache.

Morty yanked at the restraints on his arms. He tried tapping his middle finger with his thumb, then tugging again. Nothing. Son of a bitch. Well, looks like he was stuck here, and this Rick had fucked with his limbs at least they were still functional. He blinked several times to disengage his eye.

Morty wondered where his Rick was. What he was doing. There was about a ninety percent chance Rick was coming for him, five percent he was leaving him to handle it by himself. He could but it was the principle of the thing. On a completely different track there was about a sixty percent chance Rick was distracted by something and didn’t notice Morty was gone, considering they left his Rick in Blips and Chits. Although given how Rick’s clinginess had been rearing its head lately, that boosted the first track to about ninety-five percent. These were all approximated percentages though, so who really knew in the end. He’d like to think his Rick would come for him. He always had before.

Biting his lip, he felt a longing well up in his chest. He really shouldn’t have walked off on his own. He figured he would be safe in Blips and Chits, but he had let his guard down. That’s was Rick’s number one rule, the rule Rick had drilled into Morty from the very beginning. Never let your guard down. He was an idiot. He just wanted to be sitting on the couch in Rick’s lap and watching T.V. Why the fuck did random Ricks go insane?

He knew the answer to that. Every Rick was always slightly unstable.

Morty jerked at the sound of a door swishing open off to his right. Sitting up as best he could, he saw the Rick from before sauntering into the room. Rick belched and leaned against the counter crossing his arms as he gazed smugly over at Morty. “Y-You’re awake. Good.”

“W-W-What the fuck d-did you do to me?” Morty stammered out glaring in Rick’s direction, tugging once again on his restraints.

“It’s useless, you know,” Rick told him as he came closer, his expression becoming more smug with each step. “I upgraded your arms and legs and r-r-removed the strength trigger. It’s now controlled by something else. I’ll tell you about it later when I’m sure you won’t try to kill me.”

“You also put a target system, in my eye,” Morty let out with a sigh laying his head back. He’d have to convince this Rick to let him go if he wanted to escape. Smother your fear, let them see only what you want them to see. “N-N-No use in struggling then, huh? What did you do to my back?”

“That’s right, Morty,” Rick had reached the bed he was lying in. His smug smirk had gone completely maniacal. Morty strained to keep his expression blank. He had to make his acceptance believable. “N-No use in trying to get free. I’m your Rick now. And as for your back. I replaced your entire spine. It’s hooked into your brain, keeps you just like this for as long as I want.”

Morty closed his eyes. Fuck, he was really going to have to download this Rick’s notes on what the fuck he did before leaving. There really is no telling without opening him up, stealing his notes is faster and more convenient. Goddamnit, he misses his Rick. This one was fucking creepy. He sighed and opened his eyes again. “A-Alright. Jeez. Will you let me go, Rick? I-I-I-I’m good, I won’t try to kill you.”

Rick smirked again, a psychotic glint hazing his blue eyes. “Y-Y-You promise?’

“Y-Yeah, Rick, I promise,” Morty let out a small reluctant smile. “N-No use, right? Might as well accept it, seems to me-seems to be the most reasonable option, you know?”

Rick started to cackle again. “Oh, yeah, baby! My other Morty was right, you are adaptable!”

He turned and picked up a remote with a singular button in the center. He pressed it and the restraints retracted themselves into the table. Morty sat up rubbing his wrists and ankles, before running a hand through his hair. He was surprised to find his hair was softer than it was before. His curls were less kinky, and more like soft waves. It was also longer. “S-So, Rick, what did you mean by the Rickest Morty?”

X-19 waved his hand dismissively walking over to the large computer on the counter. “Eh, nothing really. I just fused your DNA with mine, your shit now registers so differently you’re neither of your parent’s son nor my grandson. Also, you’re completely untraceable.”

Well, that solved multiple other issues swirling around in Morty’s brain. Shrugging Morty, swung his legs off the bed rubbing his neck. If he knew Rick, this Rick would put him through special training to acclimate to his new limbs. That’s when he could handle this, kill this Rick and get back to his. “Have you considered, R-Rick, my former Rick m-might be coming to get me?”

“Oh, M-Morty, I know he will. See, I’ve had X-19 Morty on surveillance of you and your Rick,” Rick turned on Morty again with another maniacal smirk, followed again by the cackle, and a belch. It took all of Morty’s restraint not to roll his eyes. This Rick was really repetitive. “You and your former Rick were super close, huh, Morty? He’s real~ handsy. I haven’t seen a Rick that handsy outside Diane—and Unity, to a certain extent.”

“W-What are you saying?” Morty asked hesitantly. He knew exactly where Rick was going with this. It was the exact same place Summer had gone the morning the day before he was kidnapped, the exact same place The Crossover guy had gone. That he and his Rick were a couple. Morty’s head had been in the same place since Summer brought it up. As much as he usually was able to follow the cardinal rule, with this he just couldn’t get it out of his head, especially with how good Rick looked now that he’d de-aged himself.

Rick rolled his eyes and gave Morty a look he was used too. The you’re-an-idiot look. “I’m _saying _Morty, that you and your Rick are two fucked up peas in a pod. C-185 is in love with his grandson! And, Jesus Christ, isn’t that hilarious. All Ricks across the central finite curve have one rule, one rule, Morty, they never dare break. You know what rule is, Morty?”

Morty leaned back some hoping his shock and X-19’s words came out as the normal Morty hesitancy and fear. Rick was in love with him? Was that even possible? He knew his Rick cared about him, and there was a fairly high chance his Rick loved him. But, was _in love _with him? Was Rick even capable of falling in love anymore? He slowly shook his head.

Rick was smiling too wide, you could practically see his molars. “Never form attachments, and _never fall in love. _He broke that rule, Morty. Now you’re his weakness, it’s the same for every other Rick when they had Diane! W-W-We couldn’t achieve anything with her around. When we left her, it was kosher, Morty, everything was kosher. We explored the endless span of the universe, every conceivable universe! We were unstoppable, especially when we found our Mortys. The federation didn’t stand a chance, Morty! You are your Rick’s downfall, Morty, the key to bringing him down.”

“S-Sure, Rick, w-w-whatever you say,” Morty responded with a small voice, apparently the tone worked and X-19 calmed down, turning back towards the computer. Morty couldn’t comprehend it. He couldn’t visualize Rick loving him like that. Loving him so much he’d ruin everything he worked so hard for. It just wasn’t possible. Was it?

“And as for your adaptability, Morty said you had to be one really adaptable Morty, because no matter what C-185 dragged you into you two always came out on top. Half the time it was through you using whatever the hell it was Rick taught you. Your Rick doesn’t even have to be concerned about the death count. You don’t care, Morty, and isn’t that the best part. You’re literally the perfect Morty, and now you’re mine.”

Morty couldn’t even redeem that with a response. He didn’t know what to say. He was the perfect Morty? That didn’t make any sense. Whatever X-19 had done to him was done, nothing he could do about it. He’d just either have to wait until his Rick showed up or follow one of his contingencies. Everything would be fine.

Rick X-19 walked over to the door again, burping softly through his words, “S-Stay here, I’m going to prep your training.”

And with that he was gone.

Morty let out a breath at least he was alone now. Morty laid back on the bed he had been strapped to, contemplating Rick’s words. Were Rick’s emotions that obvious to everyone? Was Morty the only one missing the fact that Rick loved him, like that? He’d thought he’d been the expert on Rick emotions, no one in any conceivable universe had spent as much time with any Rick as the Mortys do. Whenever Rick’s emotions caused problems, usually when he was black out drunk, people came to Morty to solve the problem. He was, for the most part, able to discern Rick’s emotions with ease. He could almost always tell the difference.

Maybe he did know. Maybe that’s why he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it, he knew. He could see the way Rick treated him, how his actions were so very similar to the way he had treated Diane. Morty sat up with a jerk at the realization he made. Rick loved him, _Rick loved him. _The most nihilistic, uncaring, self-serving asshole to ever grace any universe was _in love_ with him. On the other hand, the smartest, most talented and viciously lethal scientist to ever exist, was in love _with him. _

He closed his eyes, he knew it was a little fucked, but he couldn’t stop the delighted grin that spread across his face. Rick was the most amazing person that Morty had ever met, he had shown him impossible damn near miraculous things. Sure, a lot of them were deadly and there is a lot of bad things out there, but there is also some of the most beautiful things. Rick had shown him the devastating beauty of destruction, how sometimes it could be horrifying, or sometimes it could be lethally exquisite. There was nothing Morty loved more than going on Rick’s adventures, or watching how the scientist could cure problems that no one else even dreamed possible with barely any effort at all. He couldn’t believe _he_ was the one that earned the Fort Knox that was Rick’s heart.

He fell back on to the bed again. Wait, did he return that love? Was he in love with his Rick as well?

Morty bit his lip in thought. He didn’t know. While it was true he hadn’t thought about Jessica in ages, and once he reached around sixteen his incessant need to constantly masturbate had ebbed drastically. Sure he still indulged but he didn’t do it everywhere or anywhere near as often. When he and Rick visited another dimension with other Ricks and Mortys, he had started to find it tedious as well a little annoying the Morty obsession with Jessica. She wasn’t that great, she was better as a friend than anything else. They just didn’t work as a couple.

Who had he been thinking about though? Anyone? Rick?

Images of Rick’s newly de-aged body flashed through Morty’s head. He knew Rick was good looking, he had heard it stated many times by countless individuals across the multiverse, but he always thought about it in the abstract, like he never really thought about his Rick and him being a couple until the idea was presented to him. Now that it was in his head he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it, he hadn’t been able to get the image of Rick’s thin muscular body and devilish grin out of his head. Thinking about it made his cheeks grow hot and his chest to clench in a funny way. Well, that established he was at the very least attracted to Rick, on Jessica levels of attraction. His chest had never clenched like that with anyone else.

Emotionally, though? He already knew Rick was the safest place in the universe for him at least, for anyone stupid enough to incur Rick’s wrath no where was safe from him. For Morty though? Rick had always been lethally protective of him no one had to date ever been able to get away with hurting Morty, except Jerry and he’s pretty sure the only reason Rick spared him was because of Beth and Summer, also it would be a pain in the ass to replace him. Whenever Morty thought about where he would want to be in a terrifying situation, it was always with Rick, even his idea of terrifying situations were ones where Rick wasn’t there. He loved being with Rick, he loved his company as insane as that sounded, he loved that Rick loved him.

Emotions swirled around Morty, he wasn’t even Rick’s grandson anymore thanks to X-19. What did he have to be scared of? Nothing, there was nothing stopping him from being with Rick, except Rick himself. The fact that Rick loved him didn’t change a thing, Rick’s self-hatred was all consuming, he made a point of making it seem like he was selfish and did everything for himself, but Morty knew different. Well, mostly, Rick was selfish and didn’t do much for anyone else unless it benefited him, but that wasn’t the case for select people. Rick had done the most selfless things for him, repeatedly gone out of his way despite how many times he stated he could replace Morty at a moment’s notice. There was no telling if Rick would actually believe Morty would love him back, or if he did, he probably wouldn’t do anything about it.

So, he was in love Rick, and Rick was in love with him. He sighed as his head cleared. That was a relief. He didn’t have to worry about that anymore, nothing to stop him from putting all his attention into his plan to fuck up this Rick’s day. All he had to do was learn how to operate his limbs at maximum efficiency.

This shouldn’t take too long, not long at all.


	6. Rick

Rick scowl increased in intensity the longer he sat in the interrogation room for the Citadel ІІІ’s police department. They had already kept him here for two whole days, there was no telling what that piece of shit Rick that stole his Morty had done to him. Rick’s anger was reaching astronomical levels and if they didn’t either come in here and ask him whatever the hell they wanted to ask him Rick was going to start shooting.

He needed to get to Morty, his skin was starting to itch with the fact that he hadn’t laid eyes on his little companion in two days, hadn’t touched him, hadn’t seen him breath. Fuck, Rick was totally gone on his Morty. _Shut up, focus. _Rick dug his fingers into his arm, the slight pain lancing through his swirling emotions of concern, worry, and—shit, who was he kidding?—downright fear. They were taking too long, and they wouldn’t let him leave either. What the fucking hell was taking the jack-holes so damned long?

A few minutes later, this Citadel’s Commander Rick, walked in with what he recognized as his interrogator expression. He was full on glaring now, banging his fist on the table. “What the fuck is wrong with you piece of shits? Why the hell have you kept me here so long? Y-Y-You ever think Ricks and Mortys go missing every other month because you fuckheads take t-t-t-twenty years to take a goddamn statement?!”

“C-185, calm down,” Commander Rick sat down on the other side of the table. “I assure you, the Citadel is doing everything they can to discover the location of these missing Mortys.”

“Bullshit!” Rick snapped out, dropping himself heavily into his chair. “I’ve been here for two days, motherfucker! Two days! Do you how many Mortys can be kidnapped in two days?!”

“I’m sure we both know the answer to that, Rick,” Commander Rick leaned an elbow against the table. “Anyway, why don’t you tell us what happened to your Morty?”

Rick felt his eye twitch in anger. God, he hated himself. These puritanical douchbags were reason numero uno. He took a slow deep breath, trying to quell his slowly increasing rage. “My Morty and I were at Blips and Chits. He went off to gather drinks for the both of us, and this piece of shit Rick kidnapped him. That’s it.”

“Hmm,” The Commander Rick looked contemplative. “How do you know it was a Rick?”

“How the fuck do you think? The goddamn bartender!” Rick snapped out, digging his fingers into his arm again.

“What did the bartender say exactly?”

Rick met his counterpart’s eye with a rage filled glare. “She said, I saw Morty. He was waiting for me to make his order, then she saw a guy, who looked like an older version of me, running off with him.”

“Is it possible you’re Morty just confused that Rick with you?”

Rick’s eye twitched again. “A-A-Are you serious, right now? Look at me, jackass, does it look my Morty could confuse an old man with a goddamn twenty-two-year-old? Mortys are dumb, but they have eyes, dipshit!”

“How long have you been twenty-two, Rick?” His counterpart looked intrigued by his appearance. “It’s a pretty big find, Rick. A lot of Ricks would kill for that kind of discovery.”

“Three days, my Morty has been gone for two,” Rick stood up pushing away from the table. “Now, if you useless jackasses are done, I’ve got a Morty to find.”

“Hold on just a minute, Rick, we’re not done here,” Commander Rick stood as well, moving to block his path.

“Nope, you know what?” Rick moved into the corner reaching for his portal gun. “Fuck me, guys! I’ve lost too much time already, you’ve got your fucking statement. I’m out!”

He shot a portal on the floor and jumped into it, the sound of his counterpart’s curse echoing through as the portal closed over his head. He landed on a bed of purple grass. He stood up and dusted himself off taking a look around, a glance at the screen of his portal gun told him he was at the coordinates for Morty’s kidnapper. He pulled a gun from his hip, cocking it he felt a grin spread across his face. “Time to fuck shit up.”

Rick wandered for a bit, before he pulled out the portable device that held Morty’s receiver. Turning it on, he found out that nothing was being transmitted. “Fuck, what has this dickbag done?”

There could be a lot of plausible explanations for that. This Rick found the transmitter, he just removed Morty’s limbs and had them destroyed, or—nope, that option was not plausible. Rick wouldn’t even think about that one, he would _lose_ his _fucking mind_ if that one happened or he even thought it about it for too long. Rick continued wandering, he would find them. He had too. There was no other option, he _would not _lose his Morty.

Rick wandered for what he found were hours when he finally found a small building that resembled a military bunker. The planet he was on wasn’t even close to being evolved enough to have an organized military, let alone a bunker. He sat in the grass outside of the bunker to think of a plan. He could go in gun’s blazing or he stealth his way in. Either held potential, either gave him the desired effect, his Morty.

Morty would be damned lucky if Rick let him go into the backyard after this whole fiasco. Rick ran over what he had in his arsenal, he could just go and kill them all. That would be so satisfying and his Morty was good enough that he could dodge any danger Rick’s loud entrance made. Although there was the chance if this fucknut jacked with Morty’s limbs than Morty can’t do shit. Then again, removing Morty’s limbs would make him utterly useless and a useless Morty is a dead Morty. So, yeah, guns blazing it is.

Rick strapped on his armaments and strolled to the door of the bunker. Cocking his gun he knocked on the door. After a moment a lock disengaged and a blank eyed Morty opened the door. “This is a secure facility. Please leave.”

The empty tone in this Morty’s voice caused a chill to run down his back. He reached out and shot the Morty in the head, the blood staining his pure white clothes, walking in he found several other Mortys dressed the same, with the same blank expressions. He took a moment to take in the room before they locked their weapons on his person. One stepped forward. “Don’t move. We will open fire.”

Rick rolled his eyes and pulled out a small silver square from his lab coat pocket. He pressed the button in the center and threw it on the floor. It beeped repetitively before out popped a plasma ray, with six different barrels. A second later it shot all six Mortys simultaneously, electricity crackled through their bodies and they dropped in different piles of purple goop.

Rick sighed, walking towards the door on the far side of the bunker. Opening the door, he found another room filled with blanked eyed Mortys just standing around, guarding an elevator. Scowling, Rick fired off his gun killing all eight of the Mortys in a manner of ten seconds. Controlling Mortys like this was useless. You’d have to form an army of thousands of them to conquer any half-witted jackass with a nine-millimeter. It was overkill in the least useful way possible, sloppy craftmanship. A Mortys most useful quality was the fact that they tended to go berserk when backed into a corner, the ensuing rampage worked both as a distraction and a highly amusing trump card.

Unless…

This bunker wasn’t really anything. There was nothing here. Rick eyed the elevator at the back of the room skeptically. Only one way to find out. Wandering over he pressed the button. He waited a second and then a microphone buzzed as it cut in over an intercom, the sound of his voice in an annoyingly insane sounding cackle. Jesus, this Rick was gone.

“Ha, ha, ha! Welcome whichever Rick was smart enough to implant a tracker into their Morty! If you hadn’t noticed by now, this bunker is a rouse, motherfucker! Shit, it’s not even a bunker, it’s just a couple of rooms filled with my failures. W-W-Well, I’ve had fun laughing at your obviousness, the fake bunker is now primed to self-destruct. Bye~!”

“God-fucking-damnit!” Rick instantly shot a portal on the ground and dropped into it. He fell on the ground thirty yards from the fake bunker, slamming his fist into the ground as it exploded. “No! Son of a _bitch_!”

His head fell to the ground. This was a fucking fake lead and that damn Rick is a dead Rick. Rick C-185 is going to _rip_ him to _shreds. _Sitting up he watched the aftermath of the explosion, his fingers threaded through his now thick hair, pain radiated from his scalp as his fingers gripped the azure strands. Rage fueled madness thrummed through his bones as he watched the flames consume the undeveloped lands. He was shaking from the intensity of the emotions.

He supposed this was a downside of being younger, all of his emotions were heightened. Rick had always had the downside of the fact that all his emotions were overwhelming, but this was on a whole other level. That’s why he chose to stay numb all the time, it was so much easier, and his mind was always so much clearer. Right now, his rage was blinding him. He couldn’t see anything past getting Morty and submitting the damned cocksucker that stole him to a deliciously torturous murder. He needed to focus. He needed to calm down. He couldn’t find Morty if he was literally shaking with anger. Everything was blurred, hell, he could barely see the flames dancing right in front of him.

Clutching his hair in his fists a little tighter, he forced himself to take slow deep breaths, focusing on the pain while he pulled on his hair. He could barely remember the last time he had this much hair, the last time he was able to use it as a focal point. Maybe during the Flesh Curtains? He honestly didn’t know. Squeezing his eyes shut, he forced more air through his chest. He was wound so tight each breath hurt as his lungs expanded.

Rick sat perfectly still, his eyes squeezed shut, not thinking, just breathing for hours, or he assumed it was hours. It could have been a shorter amount of time, but he was pretty sure it was a long ass time considering the flames from the explosion were almost out now. The inferno that was his rage was now a small fire curling in his chest, surrounded by millions of gallons of gasoline. He knew it wouldn’t take much for his rage to explode out again forcing his body to seize up as his anger consumed him. He had to stay calm, or he had no hope of finding his Morty.

Standing, Rick pulled out his portal gun and imputed the coordinates of one of his safe houses. He needed a place where he could regroup, find a different way to track his Morty down. Maybe his brain waves, this jack-off Rick could change Morty’s very DNA but he couldn’t change how the kid thought. A Mortys brainwaves were just as unique as any Ricks, not as easily traceable because they were more subtle. It’s what made them excellent camouflage, a Rick and Mortys very existences complemented each other. Almost every Morty was filled with morals and ethics, most people wouldn’t think it but each and every Rick used to be a hell of a lot worse. They traipsed through galaxies leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake, nothing and no one could stop them. Then they started to find their Mortys, the Mortys tempered them. They would never admit it out loud, but they were infinitely more successful with any experiment they set out to achieve with their Mortys there to help them focus. That’s why their relationship spanned across practically the entire multiverse, every Rick needed a Morty.

Shooting a portal, he walked through it. Stepping into the safe house, he pulled the flask out of his pocket, ripping off his lab coat and the other guns and ammunition he packed with him throwing all of it on the couch. “Computer, do I have a brain-wave scanner on hand here?”

“Scanning inventory.”

He plopped himself into the chair at his workbench, taking a drink from the flask while he waited. He stretched out his hand and saw it was still shaking. He was really starting to freak out, he hadn’t gone this long without Morty, without being able to see him or touch him. Jesus, he had it bad.

“Negative. No brain-wave scanner found.”

Rick shoved himself away from the workbench. “Do I have what I need to make one?”

“Scanning inventory.”

Rick rolled his eyes as he waited, damned slow ass version of his computer system. He really needed to upgrade the programming at his safe houses, now he remembered why he had spent that entire day rewriting this damn code a few years ago. This shit was slow as fuck.

“Affirmative. All items on blueprints present in Scrap Cabinet.”

“Thank-fucking-god,” Rick threw up his hands standing and pressing the hidden button on the wall to open the cabinet. His phone rang at that exact moment. “Motherfuck, who the hell is calling me right now?”

He pulled it out of his coat pocket. Fucking, _Summer._ Answering it, he placed it between his shoulder and face, as he began pulling what he needed from the cabinet. “What the hell do you want, Summer?”

“Wow, nice way to answer the phone, Grandpa,” She snarked out sounding like she was only halfway paying attention.

“Oh, I-I-I’m sorry, _Summer, _how was your day? Any plans for the weekend?” Rick growled out setting his gathered items on the bench. “Me? I-I’m actually a little bit busy right now, _finding Morty!_”

“Jesus, okay!” Summer let out, now she sounded offended. Rick rolled his eyes. Goddamn teenagers. “I was actually calling to see if you’ve found him yet. Judging by your short temper, you aren’t anywhere close.”

“Well, I would be closer if I wasn’t stuck coddling you and your stupid emotions,” Rick deadpanned, pulling up the blueprints and taking a glance before he began piecing the pieces together.

“Oh my god, fine. Tell me when you’ve found him, mom probably won’t notice for a few more days, but dad has been calling and asking to talk to him for some kind of father-son bonding bullshit.”

Rick rolled his eyes, of course, fucking Jerry would be the one to blow this whole thing and fuck up his shit with Beth. His daughter was pretty much cool with Rick running off with his grandkids to god-knows-where doing god-knows-what, but if she found out Rick let Morty get kidnapped. Her mostly dormant maternal instincts would kick in, either in actuality or for appearance sake and become an unwelcome annoyance either way, especially when he has to deal with his fucked emotional state due to his Morty being gone. “Yeah, whatever.”

“Bye, Grandpa,” Summer hung up and he tossed the phone the bench. He probably wouldn’t remember to tell her until they both showed up at the house. He’d be too absorbed in fixing his goddamn addiction to his Morty.

He growled softly as he worked. He couldn’t believe he done this too himself. In the back of his mind he knew he had no control over this aspect of himself. He could change how his organs worked or regenerated itself as a whole but he couldn’t control natural chemical compounds produced by his own body. Despite that though, he fucking hated himself for it. How could he do that? He knew, he _knew _what it did to him, how he turned into a panicky little shit. Worst of all, how could he ever put that on Morty?

His perfect little Morty with his ingrained planetary mindset, his hidden knowledge because everyone expected him to be stupid, and his empathy. His Morty would want to give it a chance regardless of if he was absolutely sure of his feelings, and Rick—the stupid emotional ass that he was—would go after it, knowing full well how it would end and how bad it would fuck him up when it did. It would fuck Morty up too, one way or another it would fuck him up and that would destroy Rick more than the fucked ending to their relationship.

Rick cringed as he felt that niggling at the back of his mind. He knew what it was, it was something all humans were ingrained with, something he thought he had smashed to pieces when he was stuck in those rebellion wars against the Federation, after Diane. It was _hope_.

What if Morty did return his emotions? In equal measure. What if he understood the severity of that emotion tearing through Rick like high velocity plasma rifle? Knew what it meant for him to fall in love with someone? He had a feeling Morty would know, would get the severity of it. He was actually supposed to be a lot older than he looked, it was the side-effects of going through space and time, they were subtle in nature nothing that would effect Summer or Beth, and especially not Jerry. They didn’t travel as much or as frequently like Morty. He does it at least as often as Rick and Rick was the prime example of that effect, he had already lived as least twice his expected lifetime and he wasn’t about to kick the bucket any time soon. Especially not now that O.P was such a success. Morty was supposed to be about seventeen, but he still was the size of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old.

His mental age though, Rick chuckled darkly at that thought.

If he was being honest, his Morty’s brain was the best part of him. His Morty was the perfect combination of his own ideals and mixed with the general goodness that was every Morty. His Morty could kill without a second thought. He even stood back as Rick decimated entire populations, he didn’t know the reasoning behind it, what made some deaths okay in his mind and what didn’t, he didn’t think to question it. Shit, any Rick would give their left arm to have a Morty that didn’t go around fucking up shit. His Morty knew more about astrophysics, thermodynamics, and bioengineering than any Morty he had come across so far. Rick had started to notice that most of the shit his sister or people at school were worrying about seemed utterly pointless to him, he didn’t care about school dances or peer opinion, shit, Rick suspected the only reason Morty was trying to get his GED was because he’d never hear the end of it from Beth and Jerry if he didn’t. After he at least got that, he’d be free to do whatever the hell he wanted. His Morty had started up an off planet bank account, he had his own contacts, and in his free time when Rick was busy creating something Morty had started fixing his abandoned gadgets into weaponry and selling them! There were like two Mortys in the entire central finite curve that had Mortys capable enough to be arms dealers, including his! Rick had hit the proverbially jackpot, and as much as he hated to admit it, like with every fiber of his being, it was now no surprise that Rick had fallen in love with him.

Rick turned his wrench with angry dejection, none of that mattered though. He could accept it in its entirety though, face the facts. Do what he did best, twist his emotions into the fuel he needed, use it to fuel the rage filled fire in his chest.

And who knew that love was a far better accelerant than gasoline?


	7. Morty

Morty hit the ground with a solid thud and a growl. Damnit, these limbs were harder to function than his last ones. He had already made good progress, but it wasn’t fast enough. He knew how to activate and deactivate the enhanced strength and turns out he has a long range plasma rifle in his left arm, two laser pistols in his right with different gauges, a incendiary meson cannon in his left leg, and plasma infused minigun in his right. X-19 has told him he has nano-fiber defense mesh laced through his dermis, but he has yet to be able to activate that. That’s all he knew about, but he was pretty certain there was more, with Rick there was always more.

Rick cackled over the intercom, a slow clap sounding out. What was with insane Rick’s and the damned slow clap? “That was good, M-Morty. But not good enough, you’re still not even close to unlocking the full potential of what I’ve given you. You have my processing power paired with your natural resiliency. Get up and do it again!”

Morty sighed and stood up, shooting a glare at the ceiling. He supposed he was thankful, he was saved from most forms of exhaustion, his limbs could literally go on forever. Goddamnit. Morty blinked rapidly activating the targeting system in his eye, as six drones, three large robots carrying massive claymores, and ten smaller robots carrying assault rifles. Morty rolled his eyes, Rick seriously tended to over think things when he let his emotions run rampant.

Morty spun his left leg out in front of him, he mentally flipped the switch causing the skin layer to pull back and a silver stand popped up hitting the ground as the rest of his leg transformed into the cannon. A countdown of seconds popped up in the corner of the left side of his vision. The cannon was a little strange in that it had two stages of recoil in rapid succession, Morty tapped his back elbow and a cross spike shot into the ground to hold himself in place, the first shot was incendiary in the manner of nuclear bombs, while the second was the meson fraculator.

The resounding explosion basically closed in on itself before rapidly expanding leaving utter devastation in its wake. Morty estimated they were a lot more devastating than a neutrino bomb, but giving that the fraculation of the mesons was much more delicate given their naturally unstable nature, they took a lot more effort to piece together so they should only be saved when Rick was particularly angry or some one had betrayed him. Morty had pieced together enough neutrino bombs on the fly that he knew the intimate details of how Rick’s high tech explosives worked. And well, for some reason the calculations and intimate details of each of the different kinds was slowly becoming easier to comprehend.

Morty smirked de-transforming his leg, the change in his DNA. The Rick side was rearing its head, and of course, Rick would take the time to ensure that whatever he fused with Morty was all of the best genes he could find. When the explosion subsided Morty quickly retracted the spike from his elbow and dashed across the floor using his enhanced strength, he transformed his one arm into the rifle, his eye instantly locking on to each of the remaining drones firing off one shot for each before transforming his arm again and dashing towards the three large ones again. One swung one of the claymores, he slid underneath it and dodging a punch from another, he grabbed the leg of the last one he triggered his enhanced strength and ripped through its outer casing yanking the wiring from within.

Morty jumped up placing a hand on its head and dodging a swing from a claymore. He swore when he was grabbed by the last robot and was slowly being crushed. Squirming, he tore steadily at the hands wrapped around his body. “Son of a bitch.”

He was slowly losing air and it looked like this time X-19 wasn’t about to call them off. Goddamnit. He needed to access that damned defense mesh. Squeezing his eyes shut, he strained more to free himself.

“Come on, Morty. You’re going to be very disappointing if you can’t get past this,” Rick sounded out over the intercom again. Self-rightous bastard. “Fail me again, Morty, I’ll have to throw you away with all the other failures. Some of them held such promise, they were all unique. In the end though, they didn’t serve their purpose and I erased them. E-Everything they were, everything they accomplished with their Ricks, everything they could have been—_gone_, with just the press of a button. So, what is it going to be, Morty? Are you going to be just another failure, or are you going to be my masterpiece?”

Morty didn’t want to be a failure, he never had. He’s worked harder on making sure he was the most useful he could be for his Rick. He’d done _everything _asked of him. Everything. He was _not _going to die here, he was _not_ going to be erased. Morty’s eye flashed open and a light blue square appeared in the left side of his vision.

_Activate Defense Mesh?_

Below the question was “yes or no”. Morty practically screamed yes in his mind and it was selected. The deep blue defense mesh crackled as it spread out from his body short circuiting the robot holding him tightly. He dropped to the ground, and engaged the higher gauge pistol in his arm, taking down the other two with well placed head shots. He sighed running a hand through his hair. “There Rick. I’m done. I killed them all.”

“Y-You did, indeed,” X-19 responded darkly. “You’re definitely on the way to becoming my masterpiece. Y-You’re so close! However, I know all too well how fragile Mortys can be. You’ve earned this break. My Morty will take you back to your room, we will resume your training tomorrow.”

The paneling of the wall spread open to reveal a door. A dejected looking Morty stepped into the doorway. “C-Come this way.”

Morty disengaged the enhanced strength as he dragged himself towards the Morty. There was a solid ache in his hip from having fired his cannon so many times, and his eye hurts. He blinked rapidly disengaging the target system. He looked up and watched X-19. He’d been with this Rick for four days, his Rick had to be in a full-on panic by now. He’d been entirely too clingy to not be, that could be what’s taking so long. If Rick was panicking, there was no way he could think clearly enough to find Morty. Although, in those four days, he’d only seen this Morty twice. This Morty seemed broken beyond repair. Most Mortys were generally downers after spending enough time with their Rick’s, the general populace of Mortys couldn’t take the years of bloodshed and horrors that followed Rick like a shadow. They couldn’t adapt their basic ideologies to better fit their status as Rick’s companion, but this Morty seemed a little different. The general Morty dejection seemed to be more. It was like all hope had been systematically driven from this Morty, in all ways. He was utterly hopeless, blindly obedient in a way that was more efficient than just wiping his mind.

Morty cleared his throat when they turned down a hall. “Hey, X-19.”

The Morty slowed and turned around to face him. “Yes, Morty?”

“I-I have a question, if you wou-if you don’t mind answering?” Morty cocked his head brushing his longer hair out of his eyes.

X-19 sighed and nodded slowly. “Why would I mind? Ask.”

“Did Rick do what he’s doing to me? To you?”

The Morty’s eyes widened and he looked for a second like he might start crying. He then shook his head. “No. I’m one of few Mortys who are born with a _weak constitution_, I get sick super easy and I have to stay in bed most days. I’m useless as a Morty. If he tried to implement his DNA with mine, I would most certainly have died, so he focused his attention to other Mortys.”

Morty was quiet for a moment and then he took a step forward, placing a hand on X-19’s shoulder. “I-I’m sorry he has you feeling this way. No Morty is useless, they all serve a purpose. We are all matched with our Rick’s by fate. Each Rick needs us, wh-whether they admit it or not.”

Dim depressed eyes locked with Morty’s and a reluctant smile. “You must have a wonderful Rick. You must be one of the lucky ones to receive a Rick that cares about his Morty. They are so rare, you know.”

“I’m going to tell you a secret, Morty,” Morty leaned down so he was close to this Morty’s ear. “Every Rick cares about their Morty. The rare thing is them showing it, especially to a specific one. Its so much less painful if they lose them if they only care about them in the abstract. H-Haven’t you ever questioned why you weren’t wiped clean like the others?”

“No, h-h-h-he-he doesn’t,” X-19 looked downright scared as he shook his head. “W-Why would he try to replace me if-NO! I’m sorry C-185 but you’re wrong.”

Morty backed off with a shrug. “You can believe what you want, but that’s the truth. And honestly, I don’t think he’s trying to replace you, he would have dropped you off at the Citadel if leaving you home isn’t an option. Yet, he’s kept you close.”

X-19 was quiet then but he didn’t immediately deny it. He knew the truth, and well Morty suspected given that he’d been reminded he had a lot to think about. Morty continued walking he knew the way to his room from here. X-19 was still frozen in the hallway when he reached his room. “Just think about it, X. Since he leaves you on your own most of the time, figure you have nothing better to do.”

Morty sighed when he entered his room. He didn’t know what was up with this Rick and white, but there sure as hell was a lot of it. Did this Rick not have to contend with hangovers? It was actually really fucking annoying. This placed was so bright. Morty flopped himself on the bed and glared up at the ceiling. There had to be a faster way to unlock all the things Rick had done to him. X-19 Rick said he had found all the guns. He finally got his damned defense mesh. There apparently was a stabling spike in his right elbow. Probably a grappling hook in his left. There couldn’t be much more, could there?

Morty closed his eyes and sighed. Shit, if he thought he missed Rick when he got here, its at least ten times worse now. There was nothing he could do now, though. He really wanted to just put a bullet X-19’s head. He didn’t exactly like feeling this way, he usually saved it for when his or his Rick’s life was threatened and or in actual danger. He supposed the situation called for it, even though he wasn’t in immediate danger, despite being kidnapped. Jesus, this was more annoying than Trisha Lange when she starts rambling about whatever the hell suits her fancy at that point in time.

Morty sighed and sat up, only for his door to open. X-19 Rick walked in with a smug grin on his face. Morty rolled his eyes. “Here to congratulate me on a days work, boss?”

“You’re real snarky for a Morty,” Rick commented spinning the chair that sat at the desk and taking a seat. “I have some news though that you might be interested in.”

“Oh, y-yeah?” Morty cocked a brow and smirked slightly. “Is it the schematics of my augmentations?”

“Oh, aren’t you just a fucking comedian.”

X-19 leveled a completely unimpressed look that caused Morty to chuckle. “I said I would accept you capturing me, I never said I was going to be happy about it or make it enjoyable for you.”

Rick seemed to contemplate his words, he then shrugged. “I suppose that’s fair enough. I should just be thankful you’re cooperating, right?”

Morty nodded and brought his knee up to his chest. “Yup. Now what’s this news I’m supposed to be interested in?”

Rick’s smug smirk returned looking more maniacal than it had when he walked in. He leaned on his elbows after taking a swig from the universal flask they all kept in their coat pocket. He let out a belch before continuing, “D-Did you know your Rick put a tracker in those ancient ass augments he gave you?”

Morty nodded slowly. He did know that. His Rick had told him about it when he told him how to work his new limbs. Said now he would never lose him, that no matter wherever he went he could always find him. So, he was right, his Rick is coming to get him. “Yes. I did. And those limbs weren’t meant to be long term. They were just meant to replace what was missing.”

Rick narrowed his eyes for a moment. No doubt thinking about what his Rick had in store for his more permanent limbs. Even Morty didn’t know. Rick did tell him though that it would be the ultimate protection. He supposed X-19 saved him both time and resources. The smug maniacal grin returned, and he shrugged. “Well, no matter. That’s not the news however, I-I figured you k-knew about that already, what with C-185 being oh so fond of you. Well, you see I found your little tracker, it was a simple matter to reroute the signal.”

Morty’s eyes widened. No. Oh, no. If X-19 is insinuating what he thinks he is. Rick was or is going berserk. If there was one thing Rick hated more than someone fucking with those he cared about, it was being tricked and betrayed. It kickstarted what Morty liked to call the Revenge Center in Rick’s brain. He always says he overthinks shit when he’s angry, but when it’s coming directly from the Revenge Center, he twists that overthinking to his advantage. Nothing stops a scorned Rick. _Nothing._ If X-19 had done what he thinks he’s done, his Rick was going to take him out, the bigger the better. He must have let the emotions slip into his expression because X-19 let out a dark chuckle. “Y-Your Rick must be some kind of dumbass because he triggered the self-destruct for the damned fake hideout! Sure, I lost a few Mortys in that venture but at least I fucked up C-185’s day in the process. Now he has to spend the time to find a different way to find you, by then you should be perfected.”

Morty dropped his gaze, concern lancing through his chest. Did Rick get hurt? If so that would buy X-19 even more time. For X-19’s sake, he better hope his Rick wasn’t injured. If he’s done his research like he claims to have done he should know, you hurt his Rick and well, you’ll face Morty’s whole wrath. His eyes flicked up and he flinched back, X-19 was in his face. A smirk carved into the bottom half, and he reached forward to grab tightly at Morty’s chin. “So, you are afraid of me. I was beginning to wonder.”

Morty tried to tug out of his grip only for it to tighten painfully. He ended up locking eyes with him as X-19 dragged him close. “Your Rick can come and fight all he likes. Nothing will stop me. Not the pathetic Citadel. Not him. Not you.”

Morty forced as much anger and hatred into his eyes as he could. “What do you want with me anyway?”

Rick shoved him away and went back to his chair. “You disappoint me, I had thought you would have figured it out by now.”

“Well, all Mortys are dumb, aren’t they?”

Rick chuckled and shook his head. “You are right about that, but I have-I don’t have your devotion yet. That single minded devotion all Mortys share for their Ricks no matter what they do to them or with them. That’s what I need before I can tell you any of my plans for you. Until then, just keep training Morty. Train until you’re perfect, by then I’m sure you’ll h-have everything figured out.”

Morty brought his knees up to his chest and hugged them as Rick stood to leave the room. Morty watched him leave through the waves of his hair.

“Good night, Morty. Tomorrow is more of this.”

X-19 cackled as he left, the door sliding shut behind him. He knew Rick’s weren’t naturally trusting. He didn’t think it would go anywhere, but he still couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. He didn’t see the harm in squeezing all the information he could out of this Rick before he got the hell out of here. But there was what X-19 said about his Rick and the explosion.

Was his Rick okay? There was a very high chance he was totally fine, but then there was also another equal sized chance if Rick, while in the younger body, had let his emotions consume him. If that happened Rick could easily be very seriously injured just because he was distracted. Morty didn’t know how he would take it if X-19 injured his Rick, especially now that his emotions had been laid out and cleared up for him. He thought he was protective of Rick before, but now that protective trait burned like a flame inside his chest. He could feel the need to make sure Rick was okay creep into his body.

He couldn’t though. He couldn’t leave so he just had to deal with that feeling gnawing at his bones. He fell over onto his side his fingers creeping into hair to grip it tightly as the feeling began to eat him alive. Is this how Rick felt all the time? How he felt whenever he was getting clingy and Morty had to go to school or conduct business for him? Morty suddenly understood why Rick had chosen their new lounging position. In that position Morty could feel Rick breathe, and sometimes he ended up so close to Rick he could feel the man’s strong steady heartbeat reverberate through his own body. God damn, he missed Rick. He didn’t know how Rick suffered through this feeling, it was eating him alive.

Morty stayed like that for a long time, never moving. Worry and fear for Rick swirling around in his brain, that feeling of _needing _Rick consuming him all the while. Eventually his exhaustion set in and slowly he fell asleep, one last thought on his mind.

_Please be okay, Rick. I need you to be okay. _


	8. Morty

Morty stood in the center of his room, he had pushed all the furniture to the outer walls and was quickly flipping through all of his enhancements. On the fourth day here, Morty had started doing this before going to bed and then again when he woke up. He figured X-19 knew he was planning something, but he also figured that as big as any Rick’s ego was he probably thought he could handle one Morty. However, he didn’t know anything about this Morty. He was finally prepared.

Morty had been here for six fucking days, and he was sick of it. He wanted to go home. He wanted his Rick back, he needed to see his Rick. This was it. He was going to use X-19’s over inflated ego against him and that truly was the best way to bring down a Rick. Sure, their ego’s tend to be justified, it was also their weakness though.

X-19 for some reason wasn’t as paranoid as other Ricks, he didn’t have as many contingencies. His Rick though, his Rick had contingencies for his contingencies. He had a plan for everything, and that was something he’d drilled into Morty. Always have a plan, even if some of them were half-assed that was better than no plan at all. Morty didn’t like half-assed plans though, he preferred to have everything planned out in addition to the contingencies.

Now, as an example, this fucking idiot Rick had made his room the same room he’d woken up in. The same room that had a computer in it. Morty had already located the camera in his room. Morty rolled up to stand, he quickly flipped his arm to the lower gauge pistol and took a clean shot to the camera. He knew it wouldn’t take long for X-19 to figure out what he was up to. He had three minutes at best. Dashing over to the computer he inputted the password all Rick’s used. He really needed to talk to his Rick about switching it up, it really was ridiculous. All Rick’s used the same damn password. _RickRulez101._ He rolled his eyes. It wasn’t even an ingenious password.

Sighing, Morty started downloading all the files on Mortys and the research he had done to create the perfect Morty. Slipping the small flash-drive that, once again, all Ricks just kept in their computers. Jesus, Ricks were actually kind of predictable now that he was thinking about it. Well, wait—maybe that was just his new Rick genes. That would actually make a lot of sense.

Morty shrugged. Nevermind, doesn’t matter. X-19 made him this way so now he can face the damn consequences. He actually kind of hoped he didn’t develop Rick’s Revenge Center. That wouldn’t look good for the universe. Morty shook his head.

Damnit. _Don’t think about it. _

Morty flipped the mental switch that turned on his enhanced strength. He honestly preferred the strength of his new limbs. It was much better than the enhanced strength of his previous limbs. He couldn’t forced his hands through solid metal before, now he could. He forced his fingers through the seam of the door and wrenched it open. Perfect.

He started down the hallways, when the speaker system sketched into sound. He sounded like he was practically spitting with anger. “God-fucking-damnit! You were so perfect, Morty. You were going to be everything I needed. I can’t believe you actually had me fooled. I left you alone, that was my mistake. You disappoint me, Morty. And now I’m done with you.”

Morty smirked. That was his mistake. If only he had known better than to trust anything, especially someone trained personally by a Rick. Guess X-19 doesn’t know himself very well. Morty slipped through the hallways, only to be attacked by the roaming Mortys. He quickly shot at them, they all fell. God, were all Mortys really this useless?

Sighing he made his way towards the training room. The amount of Mortys increased as he went along, and he might have destroyed a couple rooms, he wasn’t entirely paying attention. He had a goal. X-19 was usually in there, tinkering with his drill designs. Making them more efficient, more deadly. He wasn’t surprised at all that there was basically an army of Mortys waiting for him. X-19 Rick and X-19 Morty standing in front of them. X-19 was smirking and X-19 Morty was looking a little worse for the wear. He supposed today was one of his bad days.

“Look at you, you really are my masterpiece, Morty,” X-19 stepped forward, using his hands to articulate. “I’m really going to have a hard time replacing you. But there has to be a Morty with the same adaptability and be just a bit more gullible. Then he’ll be my perfect masterpiece. Unlike you.”

“Well, I guess its unfortunate for you that you won’t live long enough to find him,” Morty responded cocking his gun and flipping his other arm into it’s gun.

X-19 growled and glared at Morty. “Get him.”

All of the Mortys attacked at once. Morty quickly started to fire taking out as many as he could. He noticed even X-19 Morty had ran into the fray. Mortys dropped like flies, most of them piling up where they had stood. There was already a small mountain of them forming. Morty wasn’t really fond of killing all these Mortys, but he supposed in a way it was like putting them out of their misery. Their minds had been wiped there was no turning back from that. They would never get to go home. So, he supposed it wasn’t so bad, but goddamn was there a lot of them.

He kicked a Morty off his leg and shot it through the head. Jesus. This was almost pathetic. X-19 was just watching with that stupid smirk on his face. He really hated that damn ssmirk. It was so different from his Rick’s. He wanted to carve up X-19’s face so he couldn’t ever produce that bastardization of Rick’s smirk again.

“There is no escape, C-185, I told you that,” Morty shot three more Mortys before turning around to see X-19 Morty standing in front of him with a small gun. He really thought he could win with that? It’s the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gun fight. Or rather a .22 to a canon fight.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Morty didn’t look away as he stuck his left arm out to the side and shot a Morty who had tripped and was trying to get back up. X-19 Morty stuck up his hand and the steadily shrinking army of Mortys stilled waiting for another command. “I told you, X. Y-You didn’t have to do this. You didn’t have to put up with his shit. Y-You don’t like what he’s doing? How he’s trying to replace you? Then fix it! I gave you the s-secret to all Ricks. It’s true. All Ricks are generally the same, it’s the one thing in the Multiverse that remains the same. Sure there are little tweaks to their personalities, but in the end, all Ricks are just that—Rick.”

“You’re lying!” X-Morty shouted. Morty took note of how his hands were trembling. He looked like that was the first time he’d ever picked up a gun in his life. He’d miss if he even tried to shoot it. This was so fucking easy. “Ricks don’t care about Mortys. They don’t care about anything other than themselves! H-H-He wouldn’t be doing this if what you said was true.”

“Believe what you want, but if you try me on this you will die,” Morty warned flipping his left arm back to his hand. He had a feeling this Morty would get a little scrappy if his gun plan didn’t work out.

X-Morty pulled up his gun with a little growl and took a shot. As predicted he missed and his bullet went straight through the eye of one of the Mortys standing behind him. If he had actually been aiming for that it would have been a pretty nice shot but since he wasn’t, it was shit. Growling X-Morty threw his gun to the side and ran towards Morty. He was actually a lot faster than Morty could have predicted.

X-Morty reached Morty and threw a punch that he easily dodged. He swung his other gunned hand and knocked Morty to the floor, he didn’t move. This really was pathetic. If this was how all Mortys fought, Morty was almost ashamed to be himself. He turned around and cocked his gun and flicked his arm into a gun again, the higher gauge this time. To his shock though, X-Morty let out a battle cry as he latched himself on to Morty’s back dragging him to the ground. He yanked hair and bashed on Morty’s skull.

Goddamnit. He hadn’t been expecting that. Fingers curled around the right side of his face as he tried to get this bitch off his back. He flipped his right arm back and tried to grab X-Morty. This little bitch was a lot stronger than he came across. He guessed that was the point of most Mortys.

Pain flared as X-Morty’s fingers started to dig into his eyes, he yanked at his head but couldn’t get out of X-Morty’s grip. The little shit. Pain was clouding his head. Fuck, what was he trying to do rip out his eye?

Turns out that’s exactly what he was trying to do. With a pain filled scream Morty got a grip of X-Morty’s shirt and threw him into the floor. His slightly mangled eyeball was clutched in X-Morty’s hand. Huh, that eye was blue. Morty growled. “You little bitch. Goddamnit! That fucking hurts!”

He was so fucking shocked and blinded by pain that he completely forgot about the goddamn Defense Mesh. Damnit. He hadn’t accounted for that. He supposed that was the point of the universe, you can’t predict everything. He fired off a few shots at X-19 Morty, turned away before turning back and shooting him a couple more times for good measure. Stupid, but it made him feel better, so what the hell?

He dropped to the floor then, facing the large group of Morty’s who hadn’t yet reached him, and flipped the mental switch and his right leg transformed in the minigun. He tapped his elbow against the ground again to activate the spike, before mentally pulling the trigger. Morty’s began crumpling to the ground. He practically burned through most of them. Morty couldn’t help but smirk, his mouth tasted like blood, but none of that mattered. He was going to fucking win this.

When his leg started to get hot, he retracted the spike and switched his leg back, rolling to stand again. He switched his right arm back to the higher gauge pistol, and continued shooting. He had burned through most of the Mortys with the minigun, there were only a few left. He took note of the furious expression on X-19 Rick’s face. This was perfect.

X-19 had made him too perfect. He was surpassing all of X-19’s expectations, his carefully laid out expectations. Hm. He really was the perfect Morty.

Morty paused in his thoughts but kept firing.

Really? His ego? That was one of the better qualities X-19 had decided to incorporate? He’d have to keep an eye on that.

When the last Morty fell into the fairly large mountain of Mortys, he turned to X-19. “Now, it’s your turn.”

X-19 slow clapped as he stepped over to Morty in the doorway, the rest of the room was still dark. No matter. “I am so very pleased with your progress, M-Morty. But this betrayal, goddamn, it pisses me off. You killed all of them, even my original one. Damnit. That’s why you ha-have to go. You’re uncontrollable.”

Morty shrugged. “That sounds like your problem. I think my Rick likes me just like I am.”

“And that’s why he’s pathetic.”

Morty quickly pulled up a gun and took a shot at him. He didn’t even try to dodge. He pulled back his jacket and pulled out a broken Portal Gun. Fuck! That was his only way out of the god forsaken hellhole. Morty growled and X-19 chuckled darkly. “Oops! L-Looks like your stuck, Morty.”

“You son of bitch,” Morty fired off more shots, these ones Rick dodged as he ran towards Morty. He blinked rapidly letting the targeting system take over. He actually made a shot at X-19’s shoulder before he reached him, kicking out Morty’s legs. Morty flipped the rifle arm back to his normal hand, when X-19 dragged him towards him. Landing a punch onto Morty’s right cheek. He swore and swung out his leg, landing a kick to X-19’s shot shoulder.

Morty rolled away and stood faster than X-19 who attempted to mimic the move but was much slower. Old age really is a hindrance. He made it too his knees before Morty planted his foot into his face. He heard a loud crack as his jaw broke and fell to the ground again. Morty moved and sat on X-19’s chest, placing his gun against the center of X-19’s forehead. “I told you, Rick. This is exactly how I told you this would end.”

Rick spit off to the side and garbled out an answer. “You planned on losing an eye?”

Morty scowled. “No. That wasn’t according to my plan. Your Morty was a lot stronger than I anticipated. No matter though. I’ve lost so much of my body at this point, what difference does it make?”

Rick let out a mangled laugh. “You really are adaptable.”

“It’s what makes me the best,” Morty told him pulling the trigger. X-19's head slumped to the side and Morty scoffed as he stood. He looked down at the broken Portal Gun. Damnit. What the fuck was he going to do now?

He supposed he could wait for Rick to find him. He knew Rick was on his way, but fuck, who knew how long it was going to take him to find Morty if that piece of shit Rick had fucked with him as bad as he said he did?

Goddamnit.

He glanced over at the mountain of dead Mortys, guess the only thing he could do was wait. He really did just want to go home, he’d had enough excitement for one day.

Morty hoped Rick would hurry up and find him.


	9. Rick

Rick forced himself into a sitting position as the timed lights in the safehouse flicked on. He dragged a hand down his face. He’d only slept for about three hours, and he’d only really laid down because he had reached a point while building his brain-wave scanner where some shit had to set in order to get it done. Should be done by now anyway. He walked over and found that it was indeed done. “Fucking finally.”

It’d been six whole days! Brain-wave scanners were meticulous in their construction and took a steady hand and focused mind to complete. He had repeatedly had to stop and force his emotions into a box so his hands would stop shaking so damned bad, it happened so often it took him two whole days to get to this point, a process that usually would have taken him twelve hours—max!

Rick growled at his uselessness and he threw his tired body into his workbench chair. He flipped on the brain-wave scanner and loaded his copy of Morty’s brain-waves into it. “Computer, scan dimensions for uploaded brain-waves. Wake me up when you find him.”

“Affirmative. Scanning.”

Rick pushed himself up and out of his chair and slumped back down on to the couch. It shouldn’t be long now, he’d have his Morty. Need so intense it was bordering on pain had been thrumming through his bones for the past day and a half. He could barely contain the damn shaking of his body for a whole five minutes any more. He threw an arm over his eyes and forced himself to try and sleep. When he wakes up he will get his Morty.

Rick woke up to the sound of a soft alarm. Pulling his sleeve back he checked the time. Six hours. Good enough. “Find him?”

“Inconclusive. A brain-wave signal that is very similar to Morty C-185’s was detected, however. It is located in dimension KB-66.”

“Triangulate,” Rick growled out as he stood up and walked over to his coffee machine. He pressed a button and it filled the cup sitting inside. What the fucking hell did that mean? What the in the fucking shit had this Rick done to his Morty?

“Triangulating. Inside KB-66 Morty is located in the Jirasha Galaxy. Planet Korell, it is the sixth planet and surface is not suitable for humans. Protective wear advised.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever,” Rick waved his hand dismissively, he docked his portal gun into his computer. “Load coordinates into Portal Gun.”

“Order Confirmed.” 

Rick picked up his coffee and took a long drink letting out a sigh. He closed his eyes as he waited. This was it. He found him. Now he just had to go fetch him. Rick waited a few more minutes even after he had been informed that the coordinates had been uploaded.

Once he was fully awake and ready, he felt the now familiar burn of anger burn through his veins. He restocked himself and pulled out his Portal Gun, selecting the right coordinates he shot a portal onto the floor. “It’s showtime.”

Rick dropped through the portal and found himself at the door of a building. He held his breath as a burning sensation spread across his skin. He forced the door open and let out his breath. He leaned against the now shut door and took a couple of deep breaths. “Ah, sweet oxygen.”

Cocking his gun, he started forward. Damn this Rick was fucked. What was with all the white? It was also super quiet, he was expecting to be attacked as soon as he opened the door. He continued through the halls, he occasionally would find random Mortys. All the them dead on the floor, their blood spattered across the walls. Did his Morty do this? Or does this Rick have a really fucked up interior decorator?

The bodies became more frequent as he continued on through the halls. It also got a little darker, some walls and rooms were completely destroyed. Concern lanced through Rick’s chest. His Morty better be okay. As he continued on the hall, the concern deepening he eventually found himself at the entrance to what looked like an enormous arena. It was completely dark in there, but nothing seemed to be collapsed. He stepped into the doorway, the bright light from the hallway shined into the room illuminating the enormous pile of Mortys. There was a dead Rick in the doorway, he was dressed entirely in black. From the scar across his face, Rick noted that was the Rick who had kidnapped his Morty. There was what looked like a bullet hole dead center on his forehead. Disappointment at not being able to kill him welled up in Rick’s chest. He supposed it worked out though, the jackass is dead.

Rick’s eyes snapped up at the distinct whine of a cocked plasma rifle. Sitting on top of the pile of Mortys a bright red gridded light shined out from the darkness. Was that-? “Morty?”

“Rick?”

The being moved and slid down the mountain and there he was. Rick’s Morty. He looked slightly different. His skin was paler, his hair was longer with a wavier quality to it than it had before, it also had slight blue streaks in it, that appeared to come straight from his scalp. He was covered in blood, the targeting system in his eye shining out like a lit-up ruby. His right eye was completely gone, blood smeared across his face like he had tried to wipe it away. Rick dropped his gun and ran forward scooping Morty up into his arms and collapsing on his knees. He heard a clicking sound and Morty’s small hands were then in his hair.

Relief flooded Rick’s body. He could feel the stuttered breaths of his now sobbing Morty. His heart felt like the flutter of a hummingbird’s wings against Rick’s chest it was beating so fast. “Oh, god. Morty.”

“Rick!” Rick winced as Morty clutched him tighter. He’d forgotten to revert his strength back to normal. If Morty clutched him any tighter he’d be breaking bones. It hurt, but Rick reveled in that pain. Morty was here. _Morty _was the one squeezing the life out of him. “You’re here. I knew you would be. I knew you were coming for me.”

“Ouch, Morty. Ease off the strength,” Rick joked chuckling slightly, he knew he was doing what he did best, avoiding the subject. It was pointless in the end when he had to choke back a needy whine when Morty pushed himself away.

Rick noted the tears streaming down his Morty’s face. Sure, he’d seen his Morty cry from various things, but it had never been this glaringly obvious. His Morty would rather hide than show his emotions. “S-Sorry, Rick. I’ll turn it off.”

Morty blinked his one eye rapidly, the grid vanishing to reveal his hazel green eye. Rick plopped down and pulled Morty towards him. He couldn’t wait, he needed Morty back _now._ “No, come back. It’s alright, Morty. I can stand a little pain, especially now.”

He pulled his Morty into his lap wiping the tears from his blood smeared face. His Morty clung to him again, burying his face into Rick’s chest. The inferno that had been brewing in his chest for days now was simmering into it’s normal spark the longer he held Morty close. “I-I’m so glad you’re here, Rick. I acc-acci-accidentally destroyed X-19’s portal gun. I d-didn’t know how I was going to get back.”

“It’s alright, shh,” Rick raked his fingers through Morty’s hair and held him closer. He couldn’t stop it, he couldn’t let go. Not yet. Just a little longer. Rick was so controlled by this whirlwind of relief and need he didn’t even recognize the words that came out of his mouth next, “I’m here. I’m so sorry it took me so long.”

Morty chuckled a bit and then looked up. Rick was cringing so hard inside. Damn it all. “Panicking just a bit, Rick?”

“No!” Rick snapped out the obvious lie. He knew Morty knew it too, that didn’t stop him from lying though. He knew he’d have to come clean sooner or later. Preferably sooner before something happens, but not right now. Not yet. “It was anger. This fucknut thought he could steal from me! You know how I feel about people taking my shit!”

A warmth spread through his chest at Morty’s laugh that sounded out. So, he wasn’t too badly damaged if he could still laugh. The sound made his chest clench uncomfortably. It’d been so long since that happened. Morty stood up from his place in Rick’s lap, he couldn’t stop his body from following until he was on his knees in front of Morty. Morty kept one of his hands on Rick’s shoulder, the other was threading through Rick’s now thick azure locks. Rick had to smother the urge to nuzzle into that hand. “I’m not going anywhere, Rick. Calm down.”

Rick shook his head, his next words tumbled from his mouth before he could stop them, damnit he really needed to get control of himself. This needy feeling. The need to cling to Morty and never let him go was eating away at his very bones. “I-I’m not going to let you go anywhere. Not again. Y-Y-You’ll be lucky if I let you out of your bedroom for any reason.”

Morty laughed softly again, he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek causing Rick to freeze. What? Did he-? Does he know? Rick shook his head. Not the time at all for any of that. Rick slowly ran his hands over Morty’s body, partially checking for more injuries, partially just because he could while playing into his clinginess. The only visible injury was his eye. “What did he do to you? What happened to your eye?”

“My eye was X-19’s Morty doing,” His companion shrugged, letting his other hand fall on Rick’s other shoulder. He resisted the urge to drag that hand back to his hair. “He fucking attacked me, while I was dealing with X-19’s hordes of failures.”

“Failures?” Rick cocked a brow at him in confusion. Failures for what?

“Yeah,” Morty waved his hand. “X-19 was trying to create the ‘Rickest-Morty’. He had been trying to combine Rick and Morty DNA, he also gave them tricked out augmentations. They all failed for some reason or another. I was his masterpiece. Looks like you don’t have to make me new limbs after all.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Rick commented, pulling Morty closer to him. The kid had somehow inched farther away without actually moving, or maybe Rick was just out of it. Either is probable. However, if you combine Morty and Rick’s DNA there are any number of things that could happen. The similar strains could come together as they obviously did with his Morty, making an entire new set of DNA unrelated to any Rick or Morty. Or the DNA merge would fail and the Morty would lose all sense of self. “Make one of them then you’ve got the Perfect Morty.”

“Yeah, math is easier now, whoopee,” Morty shrugged with a painful looking roll of his eye. “I have a long-range plasma rifle in my left arm, a grappling hook in my left elbow, 12- and 16-gauge laser pistols in my right, an incendiary meson cannon in my left leg, and a plasma infused minigun in my right. I have a defense mesh, oh, a spike in my right elbow. I mostly use it for balance with the cannon. You saw the targeting grid in my eye. I also have a spatial awareness, X-19 called it my ‘spider-sense’, really cracked himself up with that one.”

“Jesus Christ,” Rick shook his head and leaned his head against Morty. He was able to hold off for a few seconds before he was burying his face in Morty’s stomach, his hands gripping tightly onto to the white tunic. “Guess I don’t have to worry about giving you new upgrades for a while.”

Morty pulled out a small device from his pocket, it kind of resembled a USB flashdrive. “I got all his notes on what he did, if you want ‘em Rick.”

“You’re damn straight I want them,” Rick shot up before taking the flashdrive from Morty and placing it in his own pockets. “Anything else I should know about?”

“Uh, he replaced my entire spine so when you do need to upgrade me it should be pretty easy,” Morty shrugged and hugged Rick close to him. Rick shook his head again and just clutched Morty to him. Feeling his life thrum through his own body, it was like liquid nitrogen to the flames of Rick’s rage.

He didn’t know how long he stayed that way but eventually Morty pushed Rick back a little. “As much as I love being held by you, Rick. My eye socket, kind of hurts. Y-You think we can go home so you can give me a new one?”

“Oh, shit, Morty!” Rick instantly stood up, he picked up Morty and held him. He really couldn’t stand to let go of him for any length of time. Maybe eventually, but for now and the foreseeable future. Morty will always be within grabbing distance. “Yeah, come on, let’s go get you fixed up.”

“Thanks, Rick,” Morty clung to Rick, laying his head on Rick’s shoulder. He popped up a second later as Rick began walking out of the room. “Oh! My missing eye was blue, like yours. I guess it changed color after X-19 fucked with my DNA. I didn’t notice until it was on the floor.”

Rick laughed softly as he pulled out his portal gun and imputed the coordinates for home. A blue eye and blue streaks? His Morty really was a work of art. “You want it blue or your normal eye color?”

“Blue,” Morty replied nuzzling closer to Rick. “I want it blue. Oh! That reminds me, Rick. I was wondering, were you born with blue hair and blue eyes? Or did something happen to change it?”

“Eh,” Rick shrugged as he walked through the portal he’d just created. Ease was replacing the rage now that he had Morty back in his arms. All the tension he had been feeling for the past week had just been suddenly ripped away. “I was captured by some assholes who thought it’d be fun to engrave my DNA with some weird ass chemical. I never found out what it was, but I finally got away and when I came back home, I accidentally woke up Diane. The bitch, she laughed her ass off, found it hilarious that when I get kidnapped I don’t come back with missing organs, I come back with blue hair. At least the carpet matches the drapes and I don’t have to worry about grey hairs.”

Morty didn’t respond and after a minute or so Rick looked down at him to see Morty staring up at him in awe. “What?”

“Y-Y-You never talk about Diane,” Morty voice was small and Rick suddenly registered what he said.

Shit. Morty was right. He never talked about Diane. He only brought her up when it benefited him in manipulating Beth. It was just a nice reminiscence this time, it had nothing to do with manipulation or anyway to benefit him. Rick looked off as he pulled up the hatch. Damn. “W-Well, I guess, first time for everything.”

Morty’s smile was so bright, Rick’s heart hurt at the sight of it. He set Morty down. “Me first. I’m not taking my eyes off you.”

Morty nodded. “Okay, Rick.”

Rick climbed down the hatch, Morty following close behind him. Rick couldn’t take his eyes off the boy. He knew later he was going be utterly ashamed, but in this moment, for the time being, he couldn’t bring himself to care about that just yet. He would wallow in his self-loathing later. Morty needed him right now. Once they reached the bottom of the ladder, he picked up Morty again. The bleeding for his eye had mostly stopped but it still needed to be cleaned out.

Placing Morty in the chemical shower. He imputed the code on the wall that put the whole sub-lab on lockdown. Morty wasn’t going anywhere. Not anytime soon. “Here. Clean yourself up, I’m going start working on your eye.”

He said that, but as Morty began to clean himself off, Rick found he couldn’t move very far away. He had to walk across the room to grab Morty some clothes and he made it about halfway before the need to turn around and check that Morty was still there unfurled within him. He was, of course, but that didn’t help Rick at all. Apparently only Morty’s touch could alleviate that. This was getting ridiculous.

He had Morty back though. That was all that mattered in the end.


	10. Morty

Morty took a deep breath before leaning his head against the glass doors to the chemical shower. He scrubbed the blood from his skin. He was drenched in it. Rick and Morty blood alike. Jesus, his eye hurts and the feeling of water getting sprayed lightly into his eye socket isn’t a feeling he wishes to repeat. After this though, he’ll barely be human. Strangely that doesn’t bother him. To be completely honest after killing Rick, the only thing he felt was a deep-seated exhaustion, tinged with worry about how he was supposed to get home.

Then Rick appeared.

He was fully decked out in his wartime regalia. It was everything he needed to utterly annihilate his enemy. The stark emotion that bled through his normally stoic expression was what made him pause and lower his gun. The overwhelming relief that flooded his body as he slid down the mountain of his dead other selves was the only thing he could focus on. Rick had looked ragged. He looked like he hadn’t slept in the full week Morty had been gone. He actually had stubble coming in, his bright azure eyes were slightly bloodshot. And then there was the touching.

Rick hadn’t stopped touching him since Morty ran into his arms crying. Morty could see the previous panic leaving his body. The hard tremor in Rick’s hands. The man had been so lost in his own emotions he probably wasn’t even able to think straight. _No wonder it took him so long_, Morty chuckled and shook his head. He tapped the button on the wall that spit out soap. He scrubbed his whole body, cleaning as much blood from his face as possible before it was replaced with what was slowly oozing from his eye, before moving onto his hair. Blood and viscera fell from his soft highlighted locks, he sighed. Jesus, that was some massacre. He hadn’t gone on a spree like that since the last person to direly injure Rick. Psychological injuries counted.

Once he found he was as clean as he was going to get, he shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. He slapped the button on the wall that spit out towels. He silently dried himself off with the towel before turning to look at Rick. He was tense again, wildly. He was faced away from Morty and he was pretty damned sure it was spite at his clinginess. Morty smiled a little. Rick was still the same old Rick. “Rick?”

The elder scientist jumped and swore before slowly turning around. “Yes, Morty?”

“I-I-It’s cold down here, can I get something to wear?” Morty stepped forward and Rick flinched like he wanted to go to Morty but was forcing himself to stay at the counter.

“Right there,” Rick pointed toward the pile of clothes on the counter closest to him.

Morty chuckled softly again, before pulling on the pale grey sweatpants and the white t-shirt. He ruffled the towel over his head to dry his hair at least so he wasn’t dripping all over the floor. Dropping the towel he padded over to Rick and wrapped him in a hug. “Y-You know, Rick. If you need to be close, you can. I won’t tell anyone.”

“W-What do you know? Y-Y-You little shit,” Despite his scathing words, he turned around and picked up Morty and setting him on the counter. “I’ve got your eye. Let me see.”

Rick was scowling as per his usual expression, he gently pulled Morty’s chin towards him. He picked up a syringe and injected some kind of liquid into his eye. “Anesthetic?”

Rick shrugged, before picking up a pair of tongs. “Something like that, more like it just blocks all pain receptors to the area in which it’s injected.”

“Neat,” Morty sighed softly when Rick tilted Morty’s head back and tugged the cord of his new eye through his empty socket to plug it into the metal bits in his brain. It was strange. He could feel the whole process but there was no pain. He popped the eyeball in and warmth spread through his entire socket. He was pretty sure it would have been burning, if it wasn’t for Rick’s anesthetic. “Thanks, Rick.”

“Sure thing, Morty,” Rick turned away and tensed as he walked away towards the couch. Morty padded after him. Rick was smothering his emotions, Morty would bet eight-thousand flurbos that the moment Morty tried to leave he would instantly explode in an inferno of possessive panic.

Rick collapsed onto the couch with an exhausted sigh. It was the first time Morty had seen Rick this exhausted at this age. Morty being kidnapped really did a number on him. Morty climbed onto the couch and sat next to him. “Rick. I’m sorry.”

Rick’s azure blue eyes flicked over to him an expression of confusion taking hold. “W-What the hell are you apologizing for?”

“For getting kidnapped,” Morty responded quietly. He did feel bad. He knew better. He knew how to keep things like this from happening. He knew how to defend himself. There was no reason for them to have been in this situation in the first place. “I know better. I shouldn’t have even allowed him to take me in the first place.”

“Sh-Shut up,” Rick’s voice was soft. Morty looked towards him in shock. “Don’t. Don’t apologize.”

“But Rick-”

Rick shook his head and fell in a heap on top of Morty. “Just shut up.”

“Rick, are you okay?” Morty rearranged them so they both were laying down on the couch. Rick had his arms around Morty with his face buried in Morty’s shoulder.

Rick shook his head, but didn’t speak. Morty wasn’t at all surprised. Rick had issues with all of his emotions. All of them. They weren’t something he celebrated, more like something he loathed himself for not being able to control. Morty laced his fingers through Rick’s soft azure hair and waited. Either Rick would come out and say what he wanted or he would remain silent. In any case, Morty had learned a long time ago it was never a good idea to push Rick.

They laid there in silence before Rick moved, he sat up on his elbows his hair falling in his face. “Morty.”

“Yes, Rick?”

“I’m sorry.”

A small gasp escaped Morty as he gazed up at this Rick. He looked so exhausted and dare Morty say scared. Morty understood. If there was one thing he understood about the multiverse it was Rick. He blamed himself entirely. It was a Rick that kidnapped Morty. A Rick that experimented on him with out his permission. A completely different Rick, but a Rick all the same. “It’s alright, Rick.”

“I-I-I-It’s not,” Rick nearly snarled out. Morty didn’t even flinch at the venom in his tone. That venom wasn’t meant for him, it was meant for Rick himself.

“I forgive you, Rick.”

Rick shook his head and collapsed again on top of Morty. “You shouldn’t. Look what I did to you. You’re more metal than human now.”

“I was more metal than person before X-19 took me, Rick,” Morty reminded with a soft chuckle, running his fingers through his head. “And that wasn’t your fault. That was mine and Jerry’s fault.”

Rick shook his head again a noise escaping him. That noise broke Morty’s heart. It sounded like a mix of pain and despair. Morty couldn’t stand seeing Rick this way. “Doesn’t matter. If I-I h-hadn’t ever come back. None of that would have happened.”

“You really think another Rick wouldn’t have come along to claim me?” Morty asked looking down at him curiously. Rick tensed in response and Morty dropped his head back against the couch. “You’re my Rick, aren’t you? My original Rick.”

Rick looked up at him. Morty could see his possessive nature burning amidst the blue of his eyes. His expression remained indifferent however, Morty knew the truth. “Yes. Of course I am, w-w-what the hell are you getting at?”

“Well, if I’m just a lone Morty whose Rick never came back, what’s to stop any other Rick who lost his Morty to come in and claim me as his?” Morty didn’t look at him but from the growl he felt rumbling through Rick’s chest he was hitting his mark. Rick would never allow another Rick to claim his Morty. “Could you live with that? Would that be okay with you, if some other Rick just claimed what was yours?”

The growl Rick had been holding back released itself as Rick slammed his fist against the couch. “Absolutely not! Are you a fucking idiot, Morty? H-H-How can you even think that after what I went through trying to get you back? If you hadn’t killed that piece of shit Rick before I got there, I would ripped him to shreds!”

Morty smirked a little smugly. “I-I know that, Rick.”

Rick scowled down at him before ducking his head again. “Then why would you-?”

“P-Pr-Proving a point, Rick,” Morty chuckled again, smirking slightly. “You wouldn’t be able to stand it if I was someone else’s Morty. B-Because I’m yours, and you hate it when people fuck with your stuff. Rick, a lot of fucked up shit might have happened since you’ve come back, but also th-there have been some of the most amazing things to happen. Shit I have- I wouldn't have never even knew existed without you coming back. If it’s not my fault that I was kidnapped then it’s not yours either.”

“Idiot,” Rick grumbled out collapsing down on him again. Morty chuckled and ran his fingers through Rick’s hair again. Morty wondered if now was a good time to ask, to ask about what X-19 told him about how Rick felt about him. Fuck it.

“H-Hey, Rick?”

Rick grumbled in response, hugging Morty tighter to him. Morty swallowed his anxiousness. Guess that was a good thing about being combined with Rick, he could swallow his emotions so much better. “X-19 h-h-he told me something and I want to know if its true.”

Rick stilled and stiffened slightly. “What’d he say?”

“H-He told me you loved me,” Morty’s words came out a lot more hesitant than he expected. Damn it. Once a Morty always a Morty. “Th-That you were in love with me.”

Rick stiffened completely and shoved away from Morty moving to the other side of the couch, but he was silent. Completely silent and when he finally sighed he wasn’t looking at Morty. “Can’t believe everything psychos tell you, Morty.”

Morty sat up and scooted closer to him. “Hmm. W-Well, that’s true, but he made some pretty good points. A-An-And you know, I wouldn’t mind if you were.”

Rick slowly turned towards him. “W-What the hell do you mean you ‘wouldn’t mind’ if I was? Morty, I’m your fucking grandfather!”

“Not anymore,” Morty shrugged. And that was the thing that got to him in the beginning too. Now, what the hell did he have to worry about. His DNA wasn’t anywhere near what it was before. He wasn’t even related to Rick genetically anymore. “Since X-19 combined my DNA with yours. I’m something completely different now. And who cares if you are or aren’t? You can’t tell me there aren’t realities out there where romantic relationship between members of the same family aren’t completely unthinkable. I’m sure there are realities out there where we’re already together.”

“Yeah, well, those Rick and Morty pairs aren’t the norm, you know,” Rick grumbled out crossing his arms. “Besides, so what if I was? It wouldn’t fucking matter anyway.”

Morty sighed and shrugged. “I think it would.”

Morty squealed as he was quickly pinned back down onto the couch. Rick’s snarling face in his. Morty could see past the feigned anger though. Was that hope? When did Rick get that? “What the hell do mean by that?”

Morty was suddenly embarrassed though. He looked off and hesitated. He was completely prepared to just tell Rick a second ago. Where the hell did this embarrassment come from? Rick was right, emotions are dumb. He had to say it though. He’d gone this far and Rick wasn’t about to let him go without an explanation. Morty took a deep breath and looked back at Rick.

“I love you.”

Rick’s azure eyes widened and he froze completely. “Y-Y-You what?”

“I love you, Rick,” Now that it was out Morty’s embarrassment fizzled out. Sure, he could still feel the blush spreading in his cheeks, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it probably could have been. “N-Not like a grandson loves his grandfather either. I’m in l-love with you, Rick. So, to me, it would matter a great deal.”

Rick was quiet for a moment. He looked completely shocked. It wasn’t an expression Morty saw frequently, Rick was very rarely taken off guard like this. “Y-Y-You love me? Y-You’re in love with _me_?”

Morty nodded and Rick sighed, he was quiet again for a minute. A few minutes later a determined expression took hold on his face. “I-I-I lo-I-”

A small laugh bubbled in his chest. So Rick did love him. So much he wanted to say it, but the words wouldn’t come out of his mouth. Rick scowled. “Don’t laugh at me, you piece of shit!”

Morty only laughed more at that. “It’s alright, Rick. I understand. You love me.”

Rick growled and scowled, burying his face in Morty’s shoulder again. “Mhmm.”

Morty grinned brightly hugging Rick close to him. He knew Rick really struggled with love, the concept of it. The fact that he knew exactly how it came to be but even Rick Sanchez couldn’t stop it when it decided to form. A warmth unlike anything he had ever felt before spread through his chest. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy, nothing concerning Rick ever was, but in that moment he didn’t care. A love he thought just a week ago was completely impossible, he had found. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought, didn’t matter if it all went to shit. As long as Rick continued to love him, he felt like he could do and conquer anything.

“Hey, Rick?”

“No more fucking confessions,” Rick grumbled into Morty’s shoulder, holding him tighter. “I’m emotionally exhausted. I forgot how fucking exhausting being twenty-two was.”

Morty laughed a little and shook his head. “No, it’s nothing like that. I just was wondering if you would do something for me.”

Rick looked up and scowled at him. “What do you want?”

“Kiss me.”

Rick squeaked. He actually squeaked. Morty couldn’t stop the laugh that sounded out at the sound Rick emitted. His body curled as best as he could in his laughter. Rick growled and dragged Morty to him, smashing their lips together. It was and wasn’t everything Morty expected. It was harsh and punishing and Rick quickly dominated the kiss when Morty started to kiss back. Rick’s grip on Morty was harsh and possessive, everything Rick had felt the past week burned through the kiss. All the pain and panic and relief, god, Rick felt so much all at once. Just when Morty felt like he was going to suffocate, Rick pulled back and laid back down on top of Morty. “There, you little shit.”

Morty chuckled and hugged Rick again. “Thanks, Rick.”

They were quiet again for a minute, before Rick sighed. “Y-You know this isn’t going to be easy, Morty. Beth and Jerry, they aren’t going to like it. We obviously don’t have to worry about Summer, but it’s not going to look good.”

“I-I know,” Morty responded with a small contented sigh. “B-But I also don’t really care. It isn’t going to be that bad and if it all goes to shit, we can just leave.”

Rick chuckled and made a move like he was trying to get closer to Morty, despite their already attached position. “I guess, that’s true. You’re really alright with that though?”

“Yeah, Rick. It’ll all be fine. Just don’t think about it.”

Rick’s snicker echoed through Morty’s body and he knew, he was right. Everything will be okay now.


End file.
